, 




iTALITY 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 







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%p t ..W~ Supgrigfti !fo 

Shelf iill.. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Science and Immortality. 



1&ty Christian ifttgtster Symposium, 



REVISED AND ENLARGED. 



EDITED AND REVIEWED 



SAMUEL J. BARROWS. 



?K*y/< 



I UlJki 



BOSTON: 

GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET. 
1887. 






COPYRIGHT, 
ny r,KQRGS H. ELLIS 



The i88 Libr ■ <v 

OF CoNOkl^S 



WASHINGTON 



"^" 



PREFACE. 



The major part of the discussion which follows 
was published in the Christian Register of April 7, 
1887. It attracted wide attention, and a desire has 
been expressed to have the " symposium w in a more 
permanent form. 

In reprinting it for the present volume, the contri- 
butions have all been submitted to their authors for 
revision ; and the work has been much enriched by 
additional contributions from Prof. A. Graham Bell, 
Gen. A. W. Greely, of the United States Signal Ser- 
vice, Prof. Joseph Le Conte, of the University of 
California, Prof. Ira Remsen, of Johns Hopkins 
University, and Prof. Edward C. Pickering, of Har- 
vard Observatory. These new contributions give a 
fresh interest to the book. 

In the " Notes on the Testimony " following the 
symposium, the converging and diverging lines of de- 
bate are indicated. 

Interest in the discussion will be increased by the 
biographical notes which follow it, giving a brief out- 
line of the scientific career of the writers of this vol- 
ume. 

s. j. B. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

I. Charles A. Young 10 

II. James D. Dana . 13 

III. Asa Gray 14 

IV. Joseph Leidy 15 

V. Simon Newcomb 17 

VI. J. P. Lesley 20 

VII. Lester F. Ward 24 

VIII. Edward S. Morse 28 

IX. Josiah Parsons Cooke 31 

X. Edward D. Cope 32 

XI. Sir J. William Dawson 42 

XII. T. Sterry Hunt 47 

XIII. William James 48 

XIV. Benjamin Apthorp Gould 49 

XV. Alfred R. Wallace 53 

XVI. Rev. Thomas Hill 59 

XVII. Asaph Hall 62 

XVIII. Elliott Coues 66 



8 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

XIX. Herbert Spencer 68 

XX. Charles S. Peirce 69 

XXL Daniel Coit Gilman 76 

XXII. T. H. Huxley 78 

XXIII. A. W. Greely 79 

XXIV. Joseph Le Conte 80 

XXV. Edward C. Pickering 91 

XXVI. Ira Remsen 92 

XXVII. Alexander Graham Bell 94 

XXVIII. F. A. P. Barnard 100 

Notes on the Testimony 101 

Biographical Notes 119 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY. 



Wishing to obtain the opinions of some of 
the most prominent scientific men in this 
country concerning the relation of science 
to the question of immortality, the editor of 
the Christian Register submitted to them the 
following questions : — 

i. Are there any facts in the possession of modern 
science which make it difficult to believe in the im- 
mortality of the personal consciousness ? 

2. Is there anything in such discoveries to support 
or strengthen a belief in immortality ? 

3. Or do you consider the question out of the pale 
of science altogether ? 

These questions are asked, not too strictly to limit 
the scope of reply, but to indicate the directions in 
which testimony is desired. 

The answers to these questions are given 
in the interesting and important communi- 
cations which follow. 



10 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



I. 



CHARLES A. YOUNG, LL.D., 

Professor of Astronomy in Princeton College, 
New Jersey. 

I understand that what is wanted is simply 
a brief statement of personal opinion upon the 
bearing of science on the credibility of the doc- 
trine of immortality, without any extended dis- 
cussion of the grounds for this opinion, — merely 
a juryman's verdict. 

As to the first point raised in the editor's 
letter, I think it must be frankly admitted that 
what is known about the functions of the brain 
and nervous system does, to a certain extent, 
tend to " make it difficult to believe in the immor- 
tality of the personal consciousness. " The ap- 
parent dependence of this consciousness upon 
the health and integrity of a material structure 
like the brain renders it, a priori y more or less 
probable that consciousness could not survive 
the destruction of that organism. But this dif- 
ficulty is only the same it always has been from 
the beginning, and I cannot see that the newest 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY II 

discoveries of science increase it in the least. 
And the difficulty, though real, is by no means 
extremely formidable. If we suppose, in accord- 
ance with the belief of the great majority, that 
the real man is not identical with his body, but 
only its inhabitant and ruler, the presumption 
that his conscious being ends with the destruc- 
tion of the body falls at once. 

Now, for my part, all the facts of science seem 
to me to be far better and more consistently 
represented by this hypothesis than by that 
which refuses to recognize in the man anything 
more than a congeries and organism of mere 
atoms of matter, under the control of purely 
physical forces. 

The bridge between the mind and the brain 
has never yet been passed, or even found. When 
we trace the waves of light through the optical 
apparatus of the eye, and ascertain their work 
upon the retina, and follow up the propagation of 
the ensuing disturbance along the fibres of the 
optic nerve, and recognize the ultimate effect thus 
produced in certain cells of the brain itself, we 
have not explained seeing. The fact that, when I 
(ego) determine to raise my hand, a certain defi- 
nite change takes place in certain brain-cells, 



12 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

and a stimulus then sets out and makes its way 
from the brain along certain nerve-fibres, with an 
ascertainable speed, till it reaches certain muscu- 
lar fibres, which in consequence contract and lift 
the arm, this is all interesting ; but it neither 
proves that my brain is myself, nor does it in the 
least explain the nature of the connection be- 
tween my will and the brain-cells where the phys- 
ical chain of action seems to originate. The 
logical hiatus between the psychological and the 
physiological phenomena yawns to-day just as im- 
passably as it ever did, if not quite as widely. 
And so I cannot accept the materialistic hypoth- 
esis as scientifically satisfactory, and am forced to 
consider it as much more probable that the man 
is more than his body, and likely to survive it. 

As to the second and third points raised, — 
"whether there is anything in the discoveries 
of science which would support or strengthen the 
belief in immortality," or whether, on the con- 
trary, I should " consider the question out of the 
pale of science altogether," — I lean strongly to 
the latter opinion. I think it is true that certain 
scientific facts and general laws — such as the 
indestructibility of matter, the conservation of 
energy, and the apparent sameness of physical 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 13 

law and material substance in all parts of the 
universe which we can reach with our investiga- 
tions — make it easier to accept the idea of 
human immortality than it would be if no such 
facts were recognized. But they amount to 
nothing more than a faint corroboration. In my 
judgment, the knowledge of " life and immortal- 
ity " comes only by revelation, like our knowledge 
of the moral character and attributes of God. 



II. 



JAMES D. DANA, LL.D., 

Of Yale College, and Editor of the "American 
Journal of Science and Arts." 

I am pleased to have my words used as you 
propose, if you think that they will be of service 
to the cause of truth. I have the fullest confi- 
dence that there is nothing in science, or in any 
possible results from investigations of Nature, 
against immortality. 



14 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



III. 



ASA GRAY, LL.D., 

Professor of Natural History and Director of 
the Herbarium of Harvard University. 

I can merely say, for myself, that I do not 
know of " any facts in the possession of modern 
science which make it " more " difficult " than 
under science of older date "to believe in the 
immortality of the personal consciousness." 
This is a world of difficulties, and it is a question 
of the more or less in the endeavor to evade 
them. I suppose that, though it is not science 
— certainly not physical and physiological sci- 
ence — that brings immortality to light, modern 
science does not really tend to put out that light. 
Yet, if that light were quenched, " I know not 
where," in modern science alone, "is that Pro- 
methean heat that can that light relume." 

Yet I would not quite, in the language of your 
third alternative, "consider the question out of 
the pale of science altogether." In the interpre- 
tation of Nature — therefore not beyond the 
highest scientific consideration — there are two 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 15 

consistent hypotheses, that of theism and that of 
non-theism. The former of these is the best I 
know of for the explanation of the facts: the 
latter does not try to explain anything. Immor- 
tality of the personal consciousness is a probable, 
but not an unavoidable inference from theism. 



IV. 



JOSEPH LEIDY, M.D., LL.D., 

Professor of Anatomy (Medical Department) and 
Director and Professor of Zoology and Com- 
parative Anatomy (Biological Department), 
University of Pennsylvania. 

I write, in reply to your letter of nth inst, 
with the following questions : — 

1. "Are there any facts in the possession of 
modern science which make it difficult to believe 
in the immortality of the personal conscious- 
ness ? " 

Personal consciousness is observed as a condi- 
tion of each and every living animal, ranging 
from microscopic forms to man. The condition 
is observed to cease with death ; and I know of 



1 6 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

no facts of modern science which make it other- 
wise than difficult to believe in the persistence of 
that condition, — that is, "the immortality of the 
personal existence. " Science has learned no 
more than is expressed by Solomon in Eccl. 
iii., 19 : u For that which befalleth the sons of 
men befalleth beasts ; even one thing befalleth 
them : as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, 
they have all one breath ; so that a man hath no 
pre-eminence above a beast." 

2. "Is there anything in the discoveries of 
science which would support or strengthen the 
belief in immortality ? " 

This question is in a measure answered with 
the first one. I know of none that sustain the 
doctrine. I apprehend that the theory of the 
conservation of force gives no support to it, for 
the consciousness of an animal is only a mani- 
festation of force which ceases with the death of 
the animal. 

3. "Or do you consider the question out of 
the pale of science altogether ? M 

I think no question out of the pale of science ; 
though this one may obtain no answer, like those 
in regard to space, time, matter, and the nature 
of the supreme intelligence or primary cause of 
everything. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 1 7 

In conclusion, while I have no disposition to 
deny what we have been taught, — the doctrine 
of the immortality of the soul, — in my personal 
experience, I have not been able to discover the 
slightest natural evidence of its truth. If I could 
resolve that the state was a more desirable one 
than is made to appear, I would wish that evi- 
dence of any kind was more satisfactory than it 
is. I, however, can conceive of no adequate 
compensation for an eternity of consciousness. 



SIMON NEWCOMB, LL.D., 

Washington, D.C. 

1. I am inclined to regard the question as 
lying wholly without the pale of science, properly 
so called. The latter, in my opinion, concerns 
itself only with those conceptions and relations 
of things which are directly or indirectly the 
result of experience. But no one now living has 
had any experience on the subject in question ; 
and, even if we admit the hypothesis of immor- 



l8 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

tality, it is difficult to see how we could ever 
reach any proof of it derived from experience. 
Our nervous systems are so constituted that they 
can perceive only the material in form ; and thus, 
even if disembodied spirits exist, there is no way 
in which they could make their existence known 
to us. 

2. It does not seem to me that modern inves- 
tigation has brought to light any new facts which 
really bear upon the question. The widest gen- 
eralizations of modern science, in so far as they 
have modified the older theories of the nature, 
origin, and destiny of man, are, I think, reached 
by looking upon well-known facts from a different 
point of view rather than by discovering new 
facts. For example, I do not think the new 
facts tending to uphold the doctrine of evolution 
are any more convincing than well-known facts 
which have always been within the reach of 
everybody. 

3. Still, it seems difficult to avoid the conclu- 
sion that belief in immortality may be affected by 
the generalizations in question by leading men 
to think differently. Especially is this the case 
with the theory of the continuity of organic life. 
So long as it was held that man and the lower 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 1 9 

animals were separated from each other by an 
impassable gulf, existing from the beginning, so 
long was it easy to imagine for them destinies 
which had nothing in common. A consciousness 
which can survive the dissolution of the material 
organism and a consciousness which cannot are 
of two distinct orders, between which no con- 
necting link is possible. If man, as now consti- 
tuted, is only the last in a series of forms of 
organic existence, starting from the lowest, and 
if consciousness itself has been a gradual devel- 
opment, akin to that of awaking slowly and grad- 
ually from a profound sleep, then it seems diffi- 
cult to assign any link in the series at which we 
can suppose so great a break to have occurred 
as is implied in the passage from mortality to 
immortality. 

In all this, I do not wish to be considered as 
either claiming or admitting that the theory of 
evolution or of development is a scientific con- 
clusion rather than a philosophical theory. 



20 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



VI. 

J. P. LESLEY, 

State Geologist of Pennsylvania. 

The question of immortality can hardly be said 
to be affected at all by the methods and results 
of the physical sciences as pursued and reached 
by men of our day, who busy themselves solely 
with material forms, growths, changes, dissolu- 
tions, reproductions, weights, measures, attrac- 
tions and repulsions, — in a word, with what is 
called matter and what are called its forces, the 
life-force and the mind-force included. The ideas 
of unchangeability and immortality are not only 
repugnant to physical science, but inconceivable 
by it, and therefore (and only therefore) repug- 
nant. The fundamental ideas of physical science 
are (i) uniformly and ubiquitously operating 
forces ; (2) stable universal elements ; (3) combi- 
nations of these elements in established natural 
proportions; (4) living forms too small to be 
seen, but mathematically conceivable, molecular, 
and protoplastic; (5) living forms subject to 
view, appearing, growing, and disappearing ; (6) 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 21 

metamorphosis of forms, both crystalline and ani- 
mated (plants and animals) ; (7) incessant move- 
ment of all the constituents of the universe, 
observable now, evidences of it in the past 
abundant, in the future logically certain, no be- 
ginning to the movement discoverable, no end to 
it reasonable, no cause for it assignable, except 
a vague suspicion that it is analogous to the 
human will-power, the nature of which is not 
known, nor the manner in which it accomplishes 
its effects. We call our will-power " soul " : we 
may call the world will-power "God." 

If this analogy be accepted as a corollary of 
science, it must be accepted at the logical ex- 
pense of the doctrine of human immortality. For 
we know the World-power only by the universal 
and perpetual movement ; and we judge it to be 
eternal merely because we can discover no be- 
ginning, nor reason to no end, of the movement. 
But, as we see both the beginning and the end of 
a man's will-power action, the analogy suggests 
a beginning and an end to the will- power itself, 
— *>., to man's soul. 

Beyond this, no real man of physical science 
will allow himself to go in dealing with the things 
of science pure and simple. But as a man of 



22 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

family has a right, and sometimes of necessity, to 
go into politics, and as the citizen of a State may 
and often must think and act as a philanthropist 
and cosmopolite, so men of science have other 
faculties and duties than those of mere investi- 
gation and classification. The will-power is not 
the whole man : besides " soul " there is " spirit." 
The top and front of the brain have as much 
work and right to work as the back of it or the 
base of it. That God is eternal and man's soul 
perishable may be a perfectly good and logical 
conclusion from a comparison of the endless 
movement of the whole universe and the short 
movement of a part of it (a man) ; but that God 
is nothing but the will-power of the whole is as 
little proved thereby as that man is nothing but 
the encased will-power of a part. Man wills, but 
he also loves and thinks : therefore, it follows 
that God must also think and love. As we see 
the trinity in man, we must imagine the trinity in 
God ; as the world-movement must be guided by 
world-thought and generate world-love, so man's 
fanciful desires prompt and his reason directs the 
actions of his will. 

These actions are directly related to man's 
present situation, are fitted for it, and will stop 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 23 

when the situation ceases ; that is, at death. But 
that is no argument for the cessation of the in- 
spiring fancy, the judging reason, the affectionate 
spirit. Give these a new situation (another life), 
and they will find a power to fit new movements 
to the new situation. In fact, this is the convic- 
tion of all human spirits, — namely, that the pres- 
ent life is not their only chance, is, in fact, only 
one section of their eternal life ; and the doctrine 
of metempsychosis is merely a form which this 
conviction has assumed, and still wears, for per- 
haps a majority of the individuals of our race. 

Science cannot possibly either teach or deny 
immortality ; but every man of science must ac- 
quiesce in the fact of the general conviction, and 
in its probable ground in some persistent part of 
our nature. Whether we own this persistent 
part, not in severalty, but in commonalty with all 
other men, — in other words, whether we are only 
individuals as to our will-power, or soul (or what- 
ever we please to call that which produces the 
phenomena of our present life), and not individ- 
uals as to our other powers (or original and cen- 
tral nature), and so, in fact, are parts of God, — 
is quite another question, still farther removed 
from the neighborhood of the workshop of sci- 



24 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

ence ; and its answer will give a different aspect 
to the question of man's immortality. 



VII. 

LESTER F. WARD, A.M., 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 

In reply to your note of March 23, inviting an 
expression of my views on some questions in re- 
gard to the relations between " science and im- 
mortality," I submit the following as the best I 
can do in the limited space allowed: — 

To your first question, as to whether there are 
" any facts which make it difficult to believe in 
the immortality of the personal consciousness," I 
give an affirmative answer, which may be briefly 
set forth under two heads, as follows : — 

I. The consciousness, when scientifically ex- 
amined, reveals itself as a quality of brain, or 
mode of manifestation of the molecular activities 
of the organized brain substance. 

It is a universal induction of science that mod- 
ification of brain is accompanied by modification 
of consciousness, and that destruction of brain 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 25 

results in destruction of consciousness. No ex- 
ception to this law has ever been observed. The 
conclusion is, therefore, almost a necessary one 
that brain is the cause of consciousness, and that 
consciousness depends upon and varies with the 
nature and condition of the brain. 

The facts in support of this are multitudinous, 
not only as derived from exhaustive experiments 
in psycho-physics, conducted expressly for that 
purpose, but also as derived from common obser- 
vation on the effect of drugs, intoxicants, poi- 
sons, and of various injuries and diseases of the 
brain. 

It follows that, so far as science can speak on 
the subject, the consciousness persists as long as 
the organized brain, and no longer. 

II. A second class of facts, which are irrecon- 
cilable with a belief in the indefinite persistence 
of consciousness, is found in the inability of all 
minds to recall states of consciousness and events 
antecedent to the present life. For immortality 
can have no claim to the consideration of rational 
beings, unless it means absolute independence of 
time and causation. All things that have a be- 
ginning must have an end. The law of the ma- 
terial world is change, which implies both begin- 



26 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

ning and end of all phenomena. A phenomenon 
that is assumed to begin at some given point of 
time and to continue thenceforth forever is, to 
the logical mind, and especially to the scientific 
mind, a palpable absurdity. Therefore, for im- 
mortality to be believed in by rational beings, it 
must be shown to embrace an eternity a parte ante 
as well as a parte post. It might be conceded that 
no evidence of the latter was to be expected ; but, 
when we contemplate consciousness as the im- 
mortal part, it should certainly carry constantly 
with it the evidence of antecedent states. And, 
if it be urged that memory is not necessarily in- 
volved in consciousness, then it must be an- 
swered that its persistence is no more to us than 
its renewal would be through other individuals, 
as in reproduction, since it is through memory 
alone that a consciousness of identity in different 
states can exist. 

To the second question, as to whether there is 
"anything in the discoveries of science which 
would support or strengthen the belief in immor- 
tality," I must answer that none of the alleged 
facts of this class have thus far presented them- 
selves to my observation or reason in such a man- 
ner as to justify me in accepting them as facts. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 27 

My answer to your third question, whether I 
consider such inquiries " out of the pale of sci- 
ence altogether/ ' naturally flows from the fore- 
going. I certainly do consider the question of 
the continuous existence of a consciousness 
which began with birth or conception, or at any 
point of time, as not only out of the pale of sci- 
ence, but as belonging to the li?nbus fatuorum of 
mythology and magic ; for it would be nothing 
less than an eternal phenomenon, which involves a 
flat contradiction of terms. 

I would not have it inferred from the above 
that science is sceptical as to the immortality of 
the soul. Science postulates the immortality, 
not of the human soul alone, but of the soul of 
the least atom of matter. Consciousness results 
from the eternal activities of the universe, is their 
highest and grandest product, and not one atom 
nor one atomic movement is ever lost. The im- 
mortality of science is the eternity of matter and 
its motions in the production of phenomena, and 
science will always object to all unphilosophical 
attempts to confound phenomena with these. 



28 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



VIII. 

EDWARD S. MORSE, PH.D., 

Salem, Mass. 

I have tried in vain to find the time to answer 
your inquiries, but have found it impossible to do 
so as I would wish. Nevertheless, I must say 
that, as an evolutionist, I have never yet seen any 
sentiment or emotion manifested by the species 
man that was not in some degree, however slight, 
traceable in animals below man ; and immortal- 
ity of the personal consciousness for one would, 
to my mind, imply immortality for all, to the bot- 
tom round. And why certain early protoplasm 
should have been left out in the cold by being 
diverted into the plant road I never could under- 
stand, and hence there should be some chance 
for every toad-stool and thistle. 

I have never yet seen anything in the discov- 
eries of science which would in the slightest 
degree support or strengthen a belief in immor- 
tality. 

As to the third question, it strikes me that, in 
the interests of morality, science must ultimately 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 29 

grapple in earnest with telepathy and other 
occult matters, so that the people will cease 
making investments in companies who attempt 
to quarry spiritual gold from the unknowable, 
and who pay in dividends script which, as Tyn- 
dall might say, lacks the congruity necessary to 
commend it to an intelligent man as genuine. 

That my position may not be misunderstood, 
let me quote from a recent article in the Fort- 
nightly Review, entitled " Science and Morals," 
by that prince of agnostics, Huxley : " If the dis- 
eases of society consist in the weakness of its 
faith in the existence of the God of the theolo- 
gians, in a future state, and in uncaused volitions, 
the indication, as the doctors say, is to suppress 
theology and philosophy, whose bickerings about 
things of which they know nothing have been 
the prime cause and continual sustenance of that 
evil scepticism which is the Nemesis of meddling 
with the unknowable. 

" Cinderella is modestly conscious of her igno- 
rance of these high matters. She lights the fire, 
sweeps the house, and provides the dinner, and 
is rewarded by being told that she is a base 
creature, devoted to low and material interests; 
but, in her garret, she has fairy visions out of the 



30 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

ken of the pair of shrews who are quarrelling 
downstairs. She sees the order which pervades 
the seeming disorder of the world. The great 
drama of evolution, with its full share of pity 
and terror, but also with abundant goodness and 
beauty, unrolls itself before her eyes ; and she 
learns in her heart of hearts the lesson that the 
foundation of morality is to have done,, once and 
for all, with lying, to give up pretending to be- 
lieve that for which there is no evidence, and 
repeating unintelligible propositions about things 
beyond the possibilities of knowledge. 

" She knows that the safety of morality lies 
neither in the adoption of this or that philosophi- 
cal speculation nor this or that theological creed, 
but in a real and living belief in that fixed order 
of Nature which sends social disorganization 
upon the track of immorality as surely as it 
sends physical disease after physical trespasses ; 
and of that firm and lively faith it is her high 
mission to be the priestess. ,, 

When doubts are expressed in regard to these 
and kindred matters, or an appeal is made to 
Nature and her immutable laws, it is customary 
for the theologian to ask, How do you know 
that there are not higher laws which, after all, 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 3 1 

may in some way interfere with present laws, and 
sustain the dreams of credulous persons which 
occurred in an epoch of superstition ? Huxley 
says the plain answer to such a question is, 
"Why should anybody be called upon to say 
how he knows that which he does not know ? " 



IX. 



JOSIAH PARSONS COOKE, LL.D., 

Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy in Har- 
vard University. 

[Prof. Cooke refers us to his work on " Religion and 
Chemistry," p. 329, and authorizes this quotation.] 

In the first place, then, I believe that the exist- 
ence of an intelligent Author of Nature, infinite 
in wisdom and absolute in power, may be proved 
from the phenomena of the material world, with 
as much certainty as can be any theory of sci- 
ence. In the second place, I am of opinion that 
the facts of Nature are throughout consistent 
with the belief that the Author of Nature is a 
personal being, and the one only and true God 



32 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

revealed to us in the Bible. Lastly, I think that 
the relations of human mind to the material 
world, viewed in the light of modern science, 
give us strong reason to believe, on scientific 
grounds alone, that the universe is still sustained 
in all its parts by the same omnipotent and omni- 
scient Will which first called it into being. 

To the extent I have indicated, I regard the 
argument of natural theology as logically valid. 
Moreover, I am persuaded that science confirms 
and illustrates the priceless truth which Christ 
came on earth to reveal; but I do not believe 
that the unaided intellect of man could ever have 
been assured of even the least of these truths 
independently of revelation. 



X. 

EDWARD D. COPE, A.M., PH.D., 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Your inquiries respecting the relations of scien- 
tific knowledge to the problem of human immor- 
tality fall under three heads, which I will take up 
in the order which permits of most easy discus- 
sion. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 33 

i. Do I consider the question beyond the pale 
of science altogether ? 

Evidence on the question of immortality can 
scarcely be obtained by us by direct observation, 
by any method known to us, excepting in the 
usual way, — by death. But it is within the pale 
of scientific processes to employ legitimate infer- 
ence from observed facts. That there are facts 
bearing on this question there can be no doubt, 
and that our knowledge of such facts will increase 
I have no doubt. Inference will then be likely 
to give some valuable results. 

2. "Are there any facts in the possession of 
modern science which make it difficult to believe 
in the immortality of the personal conscious- 
ness ? " 

There are such facts. Assuming, as I do, that 
mind, or its raw material, — consciousness, — is a 
property of some kind of matter, since the only 
matter which we know to exhibit this phenome- 
non or class of phenomena has a nearly fixed 
chemical composition, it appears extremely rea- 
sonable to suppose that, on the destruction or 
decomposition of this compound, ' its property 
above mentioned would disappear with it. And 
the fact is that this substance is of so unstable a 



34 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

character that very slight changes in the environ- 
ment suffice to bring about this decomposition 
and the death of the person which it composes. 
Our customary failure to discover any traces of 
mind in persons so dead, after their death, is a 
fact in support of the idea of the extinction of 
personal consciousness so far as it goes. 

3. "Is there anything in the discoveries of 
science which would support or strengthen the 
belief in immortality ? " 

There is evidence in support of the idea of im- 
mortality as well as evidence against it. And 
any positive evidence must be regarded as of far 
greater value than negative evidence in this ques- 
tion, as in all others. 

The evidence for immortality is, of course, 
dependent on our knowledge of the relations of 
mind to tridimensional matter. Thus, if we can 
prove that mind does or can, within certain 
limits, dominate matter, or direct its movements, 
we have rendered certain the existence of mind as 
capable of persistence in and of governing matter 
in such wise as the axiomatic properties of matter 
will permit. We thus render probable the exist- 
ence of a supreme mind, which is immortal; and, 
from that premise, we may infer that, under 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 35 

proper conditions, our own minds are or may be 
immortal also. As to the character of that im- 
mortality, something may be said later. 

The side from which to approach this problem 
is that of creation, or evolution rather than that 
of functioning, or physiology. Functioning, be it 
living, or chemical reaction, or mechanical move- 
ment, is a process of decomposition, solidifica- 
tion, or dissipation, — processes exactly the re- 
verse of creation, which is a building up. It is 
the observation of this class of phenomena, in the 
sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics, which 
has led some persons to anticipate ultimate ex- 
tinction of all the activities comprehended within 
the scope of those sciences. And such would be 
a correct inference, were it not that the opposite 
process of creation, or lifting up and building, is 
going on at the same time. 

Three sources of evidence from the nature of 
creation are open to us. These are the control 
of mind over animal movements, the direction of 
organic evolution by consciousness, and the direc- 
tion or inhibition of chemical energy by vitalized 
energy. I take up these propositions succes- 
sively. 

First, as regards the control of mind over ani- 



36 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

mal movements. It is well known that animals 
and some plants (probably all primitively) move 
under the influence of stimuli of different kinds. 
It is also well known that these movements are 
not aimless, but have reference to the accom- 
plishment of some object; namely, the good of 
the mover. In other words, the movements of 
conscious beings display design. We have no 
reason to suppose that the movements of any 
other class of beings display this design ; for, 
although it is exhibited by living beings while 
unconscious of the act, or altogether unconscious, 
we are sure that the movements could never be 
executed under these circumstances unless they 
had been previously learned by a process of edu- 
cation, and this process requires consciousness. 
If we trace the history of the designed act, we 
find that the energy which is expressed in the act 
receives a special direction in the living tissue, 
which causes it to accomplish the end in view. 
In other words, will is displayed at a point in the 
history of the passage of energy through a living 
being. No animal or other being can create 
energy, but it can direct it. This is clearly a 
case of the control of mind over energy, and 
through it over matter. This is displayed in the 



- 



SCIENCE AND/ IMMORTALITY 37 

selection of food by the lowest animals, as it is 
seen by the selection of words by the highest. 
We have here the power by which mind main- 
tains itself, and the organic forms which it in- 
habits, in the midst of antagonistic forces which 
constantly threaten it with destruction. We are 
easily led to inquire how far this power may ex- 
tend, and what may be its scope. 

Second, the direction of organic evolution 
by consciousness. Paleontological research has 
shown that the most important characters of an- 
imals consist of stages in the gradual develop- 
ment of machines for the performance of certain 
motions : as, in limbs, of running, flying, swim- 
ming, digging, etc.; or of teeth, of grinding, cut- 
ting, etc.; and of the respective functions of the 
various organs of the body, as of the brain for 
perceiving, thinking, etc. Some other less useful 
characters may be regarded as necessary conse- 
quences of these changes, due to the special loca- 
tion of nutrition or to the peculiarities of the 
environment. Thus, plants probably early lost 
consciousness ; and their characters, mostly sym- 
metrical or nearly so, have been produced by 
physical causes, combined with the uses to which 
they have been put by animals, especially by in- 



38 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

sects. Assumption of a perfect habit has been, 
in both plants and animals, the condition of the 
loss of consciousness as to that kind of action ; 
and, if all life motions should be so reduced in 
any being, life would become entirely uncon- 
scious. It is easy to believe that this is the 
history of most plants, and perhaps of some 
animals. 

Without going further into the numerous ques- 
tions pertaining to the evolution of organic ma- 
chines, it is easy to perceive that we have here 
another evidence of the control of mind over 
matter. Structure is produced by motion (kine- 
togenesis) ; and motion is, through consciousness, 
directed by will. 

Third, the control of vitalized energy over 
chemical energy. It is, perhaps, necessary to 
explain the use of the term "vitalized energy " 
before going farther. The old " vital force " is 
not thereby resuscitated, for that expression cov- 
ered so many various factors as to be quite use- 
less to exact thought. Many of the energies of 
animals and plants are, of course, not different 
from those displayed by non-living substances. 
But there is a kernel of truth in the old idea. 
Energy which is or has been controlled by con- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 39 

sciousness, so that it bears the stamp of "de- 
sign," may be said to have been and to remain 
"vitalized." Automatic energies may be cast 
off, so to speak, from a vital source, and may run 
down part of the gamut of possibility, and still 
show marks of intelligent or " vital " origin. 
Such are probably some of the energies dis- 
played by plants in their laboratories, where they 
make organic compounds only second in com- 
plexity to their own living protoplasm. 

The central fact of this part of the evidence is 
the creation of protoplasm, the only substance 
which is known to us to live and be conscious. 
Animals can only make it out of other proto- 
plasm or nearly allied substances. Plants make 
it from the inorganic materials of the world and 
its atmosphere, but they must have protaplasm 
to do it with. Whence, then, came the first pro- 
toplasm ? Light is cast on the subject by a con- 
sideration of the nature of this substance itself. 
Protoplasm cannot exist by virtue of chemical 
energy alone. Within certain ranges of temper- 
ature, it exists only by virtue of the life that is in 
it. Let it die,* and chemism resumes its sway; 
and it is quickly resolved into simpler and more 
stable compounds. This fact is only one illus- 



40 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

tration of the character of chemism. It is well 
known that, other things being equal, this form 
of energy acts by " integration of matter and dis- 
sipation of energy." It forms such substances 
as require for their making the greatest dissi- 
pation of heat, thus always approaching, if not 
attaining, the solid state. This material condi- 
tion is, of course, the most antagonistic to life 
and incapable of exhibiting its phenomena. We 
cannot then but suppose that some form of en- 
ergy accompanies the phenomena of life, which 
is not chemical, although it is evident that a cer- 
tain amount of chemism is necessary to its ac- 
tivity; or rather, as with animal electricity, the 
living energy only requires enough control for its 
purposes, and not the extinction of other forms 
of energy in its physical basis. What may this 
energy be ? It is safe to presume that it is one 
of the vital group. Now, the only essential of 
that group which we have been able to discover 
is that it bears the stamp of consciousness. 

If we now turn to the problem of the origin of 
the first protoplasm, our safest course is to be- 
lieve that it was effected by a form of energy 
similar to that which now manufactures it from 
the raw, inorganic materials. It is the only form 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 41 

of energy which we know of which is competent 
to perform that function. And it does it in very 
imposing fashion. The vegetation of the earth 
is manufacturing it everywhere by thousands of 
tons a day. In like manner, in primitive ages, 
this energy made the first protoplasm.* But it 
is obvious that at that time it had a different 
physical basis than it has now. Perhaps the 
temperature was too high for the sufficient sta- 
bility of protoplasm. In any case, we have here 
a clear view of vital energy as a property of some 
physical basis not protoplasm. And if, as I be- 
lieve is demonstrable, that M vital energy " is only 
such by virtue of the stamp of consciousness, 
past or present, we have here evidence of primi- 
tive consciousness before the days of protoplasm. 
We thus destroy the evidence against the possi- 
bility of immortality as presented by its strongest 
antagonist, chemism. And a physical basis of 
consciousness other than protoplasm is the essen- 
tial of a belief in a Supreme Mind, and in the 
persistence of human consciousness. 

As to the nature of this supposed immortality, 
science can have little to say. One thing, how- 

*The intervention of chlorophyll in this process in plants must be 
regarded as a complication of a later origin. 



42 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

ever, may be asserted. We cannot be sure of 
retaining our personality intact, although a great 
change might not be any cause for regret. As 
we change our personality in the course of time 
during this life, we cannot be sure of retaining it 
in another. But we do not always regret the 
change which time produces here ; in fact, we 
may generally rejoice in it. Then there is a 
question as to the necessary isolation or distinc- 
tion of consciousnesses from each other, all which 
may be relegated to the region of speculation. 
But one thought has often seemed to me to be of 
value. It is this : Beware of automatism. 



XI. 

SIR J. WILLIAM DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S., 

Principal and Vice-Chancellor McGill University, 
Montreal. 

[Sir William Dawson refers us to the tenth chapter of 
Fossil Men and their Modern Representatives, and author- 
izes the following quotation.] 

What shall we say, then, of this instinct of im- 
mortality handed down through all the genera- 
tions of prehistoric and savage men, and prompt- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 43 

ing to costly funeral rites ? Is it a mere fancy, 
a baseless superstition ? Is it not rather a God- 
given feature of the spiritual nature yearning 
after a lost earthly immortality, and clinging to 
the hope of a better being in a future life ? And 
is it not, after all, inseparable from the belief 
in a God, whose children we are, and who can 
transfer us from this lower sphere to better 
mansions in his own heavenly home ? Is the 
" Monist " or materialist, who looks with indiffer- 
ence on death as the close of certain physical 
changes, and nothing more, or who shrinks from 
it as a hopeless annihilation, on any higher men- 
tal or moral platform than the savage who de- 
parts chanting his death song, and looking for- 
ward to meeting with the shades of his fathers 
in the happy hunting grounds ? Is he not rather 
on a level with those more degraded savage 
tribes, if there are such, who have lost the pre- 
historic faith without receiving anything better, 
and who regard the future either as a mere blank 
or as an unknown and terrible mystery? How 
much happier than either are those on whose last 
days shine the brighter hope of the light and im- 
mortality revealed by the gospel ! 
- In the present state of religious opinion among 



44 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

ourselves, and in view of the strange and absurd 
logomachies which have raged as to the doctrine 
of a future life in the Old Testament, it may be 
necessary to refer to the actual connection be- 
tween the doctrines of the Holy Scriptures and 
the instinct of immortality referred to in the pre- 
ceding pages. In Genesis, man appears at first 
as endowed with an immortality both physical 
and spiritual. This tradition of primitive immor- 
tality, and the instinctive longing for an immortal 
life implied in it, the Christian should hold as 
not a possession of the Hebrews only, but of the 
whole human race ; and it should be, as it is, 
next to the belief in God, the second great doc- 
trine of universal religion. The promise of a 
Redeemer to restore the immortality lost by the 
fall, is the next doctrine of the revealed religion, 
and, as we have seen, this also is embodied in all 
the creeds of the nations, though in strangely 
distorted forms. The translation of Enoch in 
antediluvian times is another primitive testimony 
of the Old Testament, which, if we regard it as 
an historical fact, must have served to deepen 
the belief in the future life both of body and soul. 
It is to be observed that all these primitive testi- 
monies go to establish not only the immortality 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 45 

of the soul, but also of the body; that is, the 
doctrine of the resurrection. It is clear, there- 
fore, that these doctrines lie at the base of the 
religion of the Old Testament, and that without 
them it would be nothing. If they are not often 
dwelt upon in the Hebrew Scriptures, this is be- 
cause they were not doubted or disbelieved, even 
by the heathen, and because there was more need 
to insist on the immediate beliefs and duties of 
life. 

At the same time, in the ancient Hebrew 
Church, and still more among the heathen, much 
obscurity hung over the immediate future of the 
human soul. Death was ever a patent fact, and 
what the state of the disembodied soul in 
" Sheol," and how or when it would be reunited 
to a body, were not known to man. Job might 
believe, notwithstanding the decay of his body, 
that with his own eyes he would see God, but 
this would be in the latter days. Martha might 
know that her brother would rise again at the last 
day. This was the common-sense faith of read- 
ers of the old Testament before the Christian 
era; but it remained for Jesus to raise the veil 
from the intermediate state, and to bring "life 
and immortality to light.^ This he does by his 



46 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

own teaching that the believer in him can " never 
die," — that is, that to him death is not really 
death, but the entrance at once into a higher and 
broader life in and with Christ, who is himself 
the " resurrection and the life " ; by his declara- 
tion to the thief on the cross, " To-day shalt thou 
be with me in Paradise " ; and by his own per- 
sonal resurrection as the " first-fruits of them that 
sleep." Thus, to the Christian, not only are the 
future life and the resurrection more sure and 
plain than they could be to the Jew, but all the 
terrors of the intermediate state are taken away, 
— the soul unclothed by death is at once 
"clothed upon," to be absent from the body is 
to be "present with the Lord," to leave the 
earthly tabernacle is to enter a "mansion in the 
Father's house " prepared by the risen Saviour. 
True it is that these doctrines are yet only par- 
tially received by many calling themselves Chris- 
tians; but, surely, happy are they who believe, 
and whose lives are heightened and ennobled by 
such belief. Yet it is well for them to remem- 
ber that, to some small extent, these beliefs have 
been shared by the pious souls of all ages and 
peoples, and that the existence of the belief in 
God and immortality, even among the lowest 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 47 

races, is an element of hope, as presenting some 
opening and implying some capacity for higher 
truths. 



XII. 

T. STERRY HUNT, LL.D., F.R.S. 

Your note of March 6, with a request for a 
brief statement of my views as to the relation of 
natural science to the doctrine of a future life, is 
before me ; and, had I leisure, I would gladly 
write you at length thereon. Just now, however, 
the press of literary work is so great that I can- 
not take the time which the subject demands, 
though I hope I may do so ere long. 

I think the arguments from the facts of mod- 
ern science are rather contrary than favorable to 
the doctrine of a future life. Nevertheless, I 
believe in a conditional immortality, in an eter- 
nal life begun already in this w r orld, which is not 
man's birthright, but the gift of God. My rea- 
sons for this belief are, however, psychological, 
and not physiological, and to set them forth in 
order and do justice to the great theme would 
require more time than I can at present com- 
mand. 



48 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



XIII. 

WILLIAM JAMES, M.D., 
Professor of Philosophy in Harvard University. 

The whole of my philosophy of immortality is 
contained in a few words of Lotze's, which you 
may like to print : — 

" We have no other principle for deciding the 
question than this general idealistic belief : that 
every created thing will continue whose contin- 
uance belongs to the meaning of the world, and 
so long as it does so belong; whilst every one 
will pass away whose reality is justified only in 
a transitory phase of the world's course. That 
this principle admits of no further application in 
human hands need hardly be said. We surely 
know not the merits which may give to one being 
a claim on eternity, nor the defects which would 
cut others off." (Metaphysic, § 245.) 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 49 



XIV. 

BENJAMIN APTHORP GOULD, LL.D., 

Cambridge, Mass. 

I wish it were in my power to comply with 
your request, by giving you some definite state- 
ments of my opinions regarding our immortality, 
and the influence of scientific studies upon these 
opinions. But, to my regret, time and opportu- 
nity are at present wanting for any fit expression 
of them, notwithstanding they are so deeply 
rooted as to have become part of my nature, 
and are confirmed by each successive step in my 
studies. 

The relations between the physical and the 
spiritual universe cannot, from their very nature, 
be made a subject for what the mathematician 
calls demonstration. Yet, even here, opportu- 
nity exists for such near approach to demonstra- 
tion as is afforded by the reductio ad absurdum. 
And the immanence of Deity in all physical phe- 
nomena, as well as the permanence of the indi- 
vidual through and beyond all physical changes 
which may affect him, seem, to my mind, to 



50 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

afford the only logical escape from a myriad 
of otherwise hopeless inconsistencies and diffi- 
culties. 

This I believe to be the legitimate and natural 
consequence of an earnest study of Nature's laws. 
Were it not that some of those fellow-men whom 
I most honor and respect have not yet arrived 
at the same result, I should have been disposed 
to regard it as the inevitable one. 

In my belief, dogmatic theology has, through 
all the history of science, been its worst foe ; and 
the minds of conscientious and otherwise sound 
investigators have been sadly warped and dis- 
turbed by the ecclesiastical denunciations of all 
who should dare to avail themselves of their 
reasoning powers, — the only means vouchsafed 
them for arriving at any honest opinions whatso- 
ever. For ages, the doctrine has been instilled 
into Christians, with their mother's milk, that 
investigation into what were claimed to be relig- 
ious matters was among the worst of crimes ; and 
that any disbelief, or even doubt, of certain theo- 
logical dogmas was a rejection of divine revela- 
tion, — in fact, the unpardonable sin. Emanci- 
pation from the shackles of such ingrained ideas 
has been difficult and slow, and with its arrival 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 5 1 

comes the natural tendency to reaction in the 
opposite direction. 

That a profound and unbiassed study of any 
branch of natural science should lead to disbe- 
lief in immortality seems to me preposterous. 
Chemistry affords no basis for the supposition 
that human aspirations, affections, yearnings, can 
be evolved from mere combinations of nitrogen, 
carbon, phosphorus, oxygen, metals, and the like. 
Physical laws, whose workings are of course as 
clearly traceable in our mortal frames as in any 
other aggregations of matter, cannot be made 
applicable to what is not matter. Nor do I 
see how modes of action can be confounded 
with the agent, in any process of legitimate rea- 
soning. Whether the masses of matter consid- 
ered be below the reach of the microscope, or 
vast beyond telescopic measurement, makes not 
an iota's difference for any of the questions 
involved. It is strange, to be sure, that any one 
acquainted with the rudiments of physiological 
chemistry, or who has seriously considered the 
relations between spirit and matter, should not 
recoil with horror from such a doctrine as that 
of a resurrection of the body ; but such a dogma 
as this has nothing to do with faith in the im- 



52 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

mortality of the individual, who has been for a 
season clothed in and hampered by the fleshly 
garb from which death frees him. 

Assuming the existence of spirit, as distinct 
from matter, it would be absurd to suppose it 
limited by physical laws, except in so far as it 
might employ matter as an implement. In con- 
sidering things spiritual, there is no opportunity 
for inferences or analogies drawn from the laws 
of matter. And until the physical investigator 
can show the possibility of evolving, from a com- 
bination of atoms and a development of cells, 
devotion and gratitude to God, love to man, self- 
sacrificing disinterestedness, self-surrender to the 
idea of duty, and that innate faith in reunion 
with our beloved, which pervades every human 
race, — all of which seem to form an integral part 
of the spiritual constitution of mankind, — it 
seems a waste of words to base arguments on 
the subject upon physical data. 

It is true that all this is but an expression of 
personal convictions, and scarcely to be given as 
a presentation of reasons for such convictions. 
But I can only end, as I began, by saying how 
much I regret my present inability to prepare 
for you the statement which you ask. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 53 



XV. 

ALFRED R. WALLACE, LL.D. 

Outside of modern Spiritualism, I know of 
nothing in recognized science to support the be- 
lief in immortality ; and, though I consider Spir- 
itualism to be as truly an established experimental 
science as any other, it is not recognized as such. 

[With the consent of Mr. Wallace we present here an 
extract from an article written by him a year or more ago 
on " Science and Spiritualism."] 

It is a common but, I believe, a mistaken no- 
tion that the conclusions of science are antag- 
onistic to the alleged phenomena of modern 
Spiritualism. The majority of our teachers and 
students of science are, no doubt, antagonistic ; 
but their opinions and prejudices are not science. 
Every discoverer who has promulgated new and 
startling truths, even in the domain of physics, 
has been denounced or ignored by those who 
represented the science of the day, as witness the 
long line of great teachers, from Galileo, in the 
Dark Ages, to Boucher de Perthes, in our own 
times. But the opponents of Spiritualism have 



54 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

the additional advantage of being able to brand 
the new belief as a degrading superstition, and 
to accuse those who accept its facts and its 
teachings of being the victims of delusion or im- 
posture, — of being, in fact, either half-insane en- 
thusiasts or credulous fools. Such denunciations, 
however, affect us little. The fact that Spiritual- 
ism has firmly established itself in our sceptical 
and materialistic age; that it has continuously 
grown and developed for nearly forty years ; that, 
by mere weight of evidence and in spite of the 
most powerful prepossessions, it has compelled 
recognition by an ever-increasing body of men in 
all classes of society, and has gained adherents 
in the highest ranks of science and philosophy; 
and, finally, that despite abuse and misrepresen- 
tation, the folly of enthusiasts and the knavery of 
impostors, it has rarely failed to convince those 
who have made a thorough and painstaking in- 
vestigation, and has never lost a convert thus 
made, — all this affords a conclusive answer to 
the objections so commonly urged against it. 

Science may be defined as knowledge of the 
universe in which we live, — full and systematized 
knowledge leading to the discovery of laws and 
the comprehension of causes. The true student 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 55 

of science neglects nothing that may widen and 
deepen his knowledge of nature ; and, if he ^is 
wise as well as learned, he will hesitate before he 
applies the term " impossible " to any facts which 
are widely believed, and have been repeatedly 
observed by men as intelligent and honest as 
himself. Now, modern Spiritualism rests solely 
on the observation and comparison of facts in a 
domain of nature which has been hitherto little 
explored ; and it is a contradiction in terms to 
say that such an investigation is opposed to sci- 
ence. Equally absurd is the allegation that some 
of the phenomena of Spiritualism " contradict the 
laws of nature," since there is no law of nature 
yet known to us but may be apparently contra- 
vened by the action of more recondite laws or 
forces. Spiritualists observe facts and record 
experiments, and then construct hypotheses which 
will best explain and co-ordinate the facts ; and, 
in so doing, they are pursuing a truly scientific 
course. They have now collected an enormous 
body of observations tested and verified in every 
possible way, and they have determined many of 
the conditions necessary for the production of 
the phenomena. They have also arrived at cer- 
tain general conclusions as to the causes of these 



56 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

phenomena, and they simply refuse to recognize 
the competence of those v/ho have no acquaint- 
ance whatever with the facts to determine the 
value or correctness of those conclusions. 

Just as there is behind the visible world of 
nature an " unseen universe " of forces, the study 
of which continually opens up fresh worlds of 
knowledge often intimately connected with the 
true comprehension of the most familiar phe- 
nomena of nature, so the world of mind will be 
illuminated by the new facts and principles 
which the study of Spiritualism makes known to 
us. Modern science utterly fails to realize the 
nature of mind or to account for its presence in 
the universe, except by the mere verbal and 
unthinkable dogma that it is " the product of 
organization. " Spiritualism, on the other hand, 
recognizes in mind the cause of organization, 
and, perhaps, even of matter itself; and it has 
added greatly to our knowledge of man's nature, 
by demonstrating the existence of individual 
minds indistinguishable from those of human 
beings, yet separate from any human body. It 
has made us acquainted with forms of matter 
of which materialistic science has no cognizance, 
and with an ethereal chemistry whose transfor- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 57 

mations are far more marvellous than any of 
those with which science deals. It thus gives 
us proof that there are possibilities of organized 
existence beyond those of our material world, 
and in doing so removes the greatest stumbling- 
block in the way of belief in a future state of 
existence, — the impossibility so often felt by the 
student of material science of separating the con- 
scious mind from its partnership with the brain 
and nervous system. 

On the spiritual theory, man consists essen- 
tially of a spiritual nature or mind intimately 
associated with a spiritual body or soul, both of 
which are developed in and by means of a ma- 
terial organism. Thus, the whole raison d'etre of 
the material universe — with all its marvellous 
changes and adaptations, the infinite complexity 
of matter and of the ethereal forces which per- 
vade and vivify it, the vast wealth of nature in 
the vegetable and animal kingdoms — is to serve 
the grand purpose of developing human spirits 
in human bodies. 

This world-life not only lends itself to the pro- 
duction, by gradual evolution, of the physical 
body needed for the growth and nourishment of 
the human soul, but by its very imperfections 



58 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

tends to the continuous development of the 
higher spiritual nature of man. In a perfect and 
harmonious world, perfect beings might possibly 
have been created, but could hardly have been 
evolved ; and it may be well that evolution is the 
great fundamental law of the universe of mind 
as well as that of matter. The need for labor in 
order to live, the constant struggle against the 
forces of nature, the antagonism of the good and 
the bad, the oppression of the weak by the 
strong, the painstaking and devoted search re- 
quired to wrest from nature her secret powers 
and hidden treasures, — all directly assist in de- 
veloping the varied powers of mind and body 
and the nobler impulses of our nature. Thus, 
all the material imperfections of our globe — the 
wintry blasts and summer heats, the volcano, the 
whirlwind and the flood, the barren desert and 
the gloomy forest — have each served as stimuli 
to develop and strengthen man's intellectual nat- 
ure ; while the oppression and wrong, the igno- 
rance and crime, the misery and pain, that 
always and everywhere pervade the world, have 
been the means of exercising and strengthening 
the higher sentiments of justice, mercy, charity, 
and love, which we all feel to be our best and 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 59 

noblest characteristics, and which it is hardly 
possible to conceive could have been developed 
by any other means. 



XVI. 

REV. THOMAS HILL, D.D., 
Ex-President of Harvard College. 

If you will allow me so to do, I will, in my 
reply to your three questions, transpose their 
order. 

If by science, in the third question, we under- 
stand physical science, the question of immor- 
tality is without her pale. The whole field of 
science, in that sense, is bounded by space and 
time, is occupied simply by geometrical forms 
and modes of motion. 

But, by the terms of the first question, immor- 
tality is predicated or denied of our personal con- 
sciousness. If we appeal to the facts of science 
for premises, in arguing upon immortality, they 
must therefore be supplemented by a more direct 
appeal to consciousness for additional premises, 
before we can use them. Many facts in the pos- 



60 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

session of modern science make it difficult to 
believe in immortality. But these facts present 
no difficulties essentially different from those pre- 
sented by the familiar fact that all manifestations 
of life cease with the death of the body. Science 
simply invalidates a large part of what was once 
thought evidence for the reappearance of spirits 
after death. 

In reply to the second question, however, I 
would emphatically affirm that every discovery in 
science is a fresh demonstration of the immortal- 
ity of the soul. 

By personal consciousness, I understand you 
to mean a person, — a being who not only knows, 
but knows that he knows; who not only acts 
under the impulse of sensations, as Huxley sup- 
poses his crayfish may do, but who has the power 
of distinguishing himself from his objects of 
thought, generalizing and setting forth abstract 
ideas. Man finds these general and abstract 
ideas embodied in the creation around him ; but 
it is evident that he could not find them there, 
were he not preadapted to find them. The eagle's 
sight is incomparably sharper than a man's, but 
no one dreams that the eagles ever saw or ever 
will see the likenesses and differences between 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 6 1 

the three willows on the summits of the White 
Mountains. The hypotheses which the animals 
frame and test never relate, as far as man sees, 
to anything beyond the individual thing before 
them, and its relation to their desires or their 
fears. But, with man, the train of thought is 
habitually and constantly a process of framing 
and verifying hypotheses, with reference to wider 
and more general relations. In science, a priori 
conceptions are brought to the test of compari- 
son with observed facts. Every child is scientific 
in applying his a priori ideas to the interpreta- 
tion of Nature, and always finds them to be a 
key letting him into more or less of her mys- 
teries. 

There is but one solution of this great fact. 
It is that man is in communication with the Crea- 
tor of the universe. What clearer proof can 
there be, as Joseph Henry said in his letter to 
Mr. Patterson, that we are in direct communica- 
tion with a Person than receiving intelligible re- 
plies to intelligent questions ? But all intelligent 
questioning of Nature receives an intelligible 
reply. We may therefore apply to this case the 
answer of Jesus to the Sadducees. They erred, 
not understanding the Scripture nor considering 



62 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

the majesty of God. Nature is an " elder Script- 
ure," full everywhere of illustrations of those 
thoughts which we carry to it, and which empiri- 
cism in vain endeavors to reduce to mere gen- 
eralizations from sensations. The progress of 
modern science, reducing the universe more and 
more completely to an intelligible order and 
rhythm, is an ever-accumulating demonstration 
that the source of all being is in a Person. The 
human mind, in the growth of science, even more 
effectively than in the ordinary contemplation of 
Nature, has direct evidence that it is in com- 
munication with the personal Author of Nature. 
Hence, as Jesus told the Sadducees, if we con- 
sider the majesty of God, we shall see that he 
has made us immortal : he would not thus hold 
converse with beings whom he had doomed to 
perish. 

XVII. 

ASAPH HALL, LL.D., 

Washington, D.C. 

Science does not, I think, give a positive an- 
swer to questions concerning the immortality of 
the human soul ; and a belief or disbelief in such 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 63 

an immortality will be a personal matter. Speak- 
ing, therefore, only for myself, my reply to the 
first question is that, so far as I know, the facts 
of modern science do not make it more difficult 
to believe in the immortality of the personal con- 
sciousness. The metaphysical arguments and 
analogies of Spinoza, Butler, and Kant may be 
repeated to-day with as much force as ever ; and 
the answers and discussion must be essentially 
the same. 

In reply to the second question, I think the 
discoveries of modern science strengthen the 
belief in immortality. During the last three cen- 
turies, these discoveries have greatly changed the 
position of man with respect to the objects of 
nature. They have enlarged the domain of in- 
vestigation, so that now the thought of man and 
his theories range throughout our solar system, 
and through stellar and nebular systems far be- 
yond. Our physical and chemical theories are 
penetrating the recesses of nature, and are con- 
tinually furnishing us with more powerful instru- 
ments of research. By means of these, scientific 
knowledge will be increased. In all branches of 
science, we shall learn more and more that the 
universe is ruled by the laws of a wise and an 



64 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

almighty Creator. It is true that the Christian 
Church has opposed, sometimes with threats and 
sometimes with persecution, the advancement of 
knowledge, fearful lest some of her cherished 
creeds might be overthrown. But, generally, the 
creeds have given way at the right time, or have 
been remodelled and improved to suit the new 
conditions. In all this change and progress 
there does not seem to me any degradation of 
the position of man. On the contrary, I think 
the soul of man, being capable of such flights 
of imagination and such trains of reason, shows 
itself worthy a continued existence. Such con- 
siderations do not, of course, amount to a proof ; 
but they strengthen my belief in immortality. 

To the third question, my reply is that I do 
not consider the question of immortality out of 
the pale of science. All branches of speculation 
and knowledge are bound up together ; and it is 
on the whole evidence, derived from the most 
complete information, that the final judgment 
must be based. We are continually having ex- 
amples in science of the danger of drawing con- 
clusions from partial and insufficient evidence. 
Thus, the geological question of the glacial epoch 
has been investigated from an astronomical and 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 65 

mathematical stand-point. This method is excel- 
lent ; but, although the array of formulas may be 
imposing and their logic unimpeachable, a result 
obtained in this way is no more certain than the 
physical assumptions made in the investigation. 
Again, attempts are made to compute the age of 
our sun ; but it must be admitted that the result 
depends rather on our ignorance than on our 
knowledge. The differential calculus is a power- 
ful instrument ; and it is very sure to lead us 
astray, if we make false assumptions. 

It is not necessary to speak of the methods 
peculiar to science, and of the testing of hypoth- 
eses by observation and experiment. These 
methods do not, I think, include the whole of 
human knowledge. Underneath our mathemati- 
cal and scientific theories lie metaphysical ques- 
tions. We do not proceed far, even in elemen- 
tary geometry, without meeting difficulties of this 
kind. These difficulties should not be evaded, 
but should be fairly met and considered. It 
seems to me, therefore, that science should share 
in all branches of thought and investigation. 



66 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



XVIII. 

ELLIOTT COUES, M.D., PH.D., 
Member of the National Academy of Sciences. 

i. There are no facts known to modern sci- 
ence which make it difficult to believe in the sur- 
vival of individual consciousness after the death 
of the body. On the contrary, what is positively 
known of the constitution of human beings ap- 
proaches nearly to a demonstration of the fact 
that what St. Paul called the " spiritual body" is 
a substantial entity, which the death of the nat- 
ural body does not destroy, and which is capable 
of sustaining consciousness and exercising the 
faculties of volition, memory, and imagination. 
The " material " of this psychic organism is what 
I have called "biogen." 

2. There is much in the discoveries of psychic 
science not only to support or strengthen the 
belief in immortality, but to convert that belief 
into knowledge. It is simply a passing fashiona- 
ble " fad "on the part of orthodox agnostic ma- 
terialistic scientists to ignore or deny the evi- 
dence, because they do not want to have their 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 67 

self-love wounded by being convicted of having 
cherished egregious errors. 

3. These questions are quite within the pale of 
scientific investigation, and susceptible of being 
answered by science in a way which goes far 
toward justifying faith by knowledge of the truth. 

When our scientists as a body shall have rec- 
ognized the reality and grasped the significance 
of the alleged phenomena of so-called "modern 
Spiritualism " ; of telepathy; of mesmerism or 
hypnotism; of clairvoyance and clairaudience ; 
of phantasms of the living and phantoms of the 
dead ; of sundry other occurrences already well 
known and to some extent understood by com- 
petent psychic scientists, — then, and not till then, 
will formal science furnish the natural basis of re- 
ligious belief. In my judgment, that time is 
nearer than many of us suppose. 



68 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



XIX. 

HERBERT SPENCER. 
Communicated by Rev. M. J. Savage. 

If he has changed his opinion since then, I do 
not know ; but I can tell you what were the views 
of Mr. Herbert Spencer three years ago last sum- 
mer. At that time, I had a conversation with 
him in one of the rooms of the United Service 
Club in Pall Mall. He was kind enough to sub- 
mit to be catechized, and my report is based on 
his definite answers to my questions. 

I told him that I wished him, first, to give me 
his opinion as to the bearing of science (and par- 
ticularly the theory of evolution) on the question 
of personal immortality, and, secondly, his own 
individual belief. 

As to the first, he said he thought it did not 
touch the problem either way, but left it substan- 
tially where it was before. 

As to the second, he said he was inclined to 
doubt. That is, he was not aware of anything 
that he could regard as satisfactory proof. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 69 



XX. 

CHARLES S PEIRCE, 
Member of the U.S. National Academy. 

What is the bearing of positively ascertained 
facts upon the doctrine of a future life ? By the 
doctrine of a future life, I understand the propo- 
sition that after death we shall retain or recover 
our individual consciousness, feeling, volition, 
memory, and, in short (barring an unhappy con- 
tingency), all our mental powers unimpaired. 
The question is, laying aside all higher aspects 
of this doctrine, its sacredness and sentiment, — 
concerning which a scientific man is not, as such, 
entitled to an opinion, — and judging it in the 
same cold way in which a proposition in physics 
would have to be judged, what facts are there 
leading us to believe or to disbelieve it ? 

Under the head of direct positive evidence to 
the affirmative would be placed that of religious 
miracles, of spiritualistic marvels, and of ghosts, 
etc. I have little to say to all this. I take the 
modern catholic miracles to be the best attested. 
Three members of the English Psychical Re- 



70 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

search Society have lately published a vast book 
of fourteen hundred pages, large octavo, under 
the title of Phantasms of the Living. This work 
gives some seven hundred cases of apparitions, 
etc., of a dying person to another person at a 
distance. The phenomenon of telepathy, or per- 
ception under conditions which forbid ordinary 
perception, though not fully established, is sup- 
ported by some remarkable observations. But 
the authors of the book I am speaking of — 
Messrs. Gurney, Myers, and Podmore — think 
they have proved a kind of telepathy by which 
dying persons appear to others at great distances. 
Their most imposing arguments are based upon 
the doctrine of probabilities, and these I have 
examined with care. I am fully satisfied that 
these arguments are worthless, partly because of 
the uncertainty and error of the numerical data, 
and partly because the authors have been aston- 
ishingly careless in the admission of cases ruled 
out by the conditions of the argumentation. 

But, granting all the ghost stories that ever 
were told, and the reality of all spiritual manifes- 
tation, what would they prove ? These ghosts 
and spirits exhibit but a remnant of mind. Their 
stupidity is remarkable. They seem like the 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 7 1 

lower animals. If I believed in them, I should 
conclude that, while the soul was not always at 
once extinguished on the death of the body, 
yet it was reduced to a pitiable shade, a mere 
ghost, as we say, of its former self. Then these 
spirits and apparitions are so painfully solemn. 
I fancy that, were I suddenly to find myself lib- 
erated from all the trials and responsibilities of 
this life, my probation over, and my destiny put 
beyond marring or making, I should feel as I do 
when I find myself on an ocean steamer, and 
know that for ten days no business can turn up, 
and nothing can happen. I should regard the 
situation as a stupendous frolic, should be at the 
summit of gayety, and should only be too glad to 
leave the vale of tears behind. Instead of that, 
these starveling souls come mooning back to their 
former haunts, to cry over spilled milk. 

Under the head of positive evidence apparently 
unfavorable to the doctrine, we may reckon ordi- 
nary observations of the dependence of healthy 
mind-action upon the state of the body. There 
are, also, those rare cases of double conscious- 
ness where personal identity is utterly destroyed 
or changed, even in this life. If a man or 
woman, who is one day one person, another day 



72 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

another, is to live hereafter, pray tell me which 
of the two persons that inhabit the one body is 
destined to survive ? 

There is certainly a large and formidable mass 
of facts, which, though not bearing directly upon 
the question of a future life, yet inclines us to a 
general conception of the universe which does 
not harmonize with that belief. We judge of the 
possibility of the unseen by its analogy with the 
seen. We smile at Aladdin's lamp or the elixir 
of life, because they are extremely unlike all that 
has come under our observation. Those of us 
who have never met with spirits, or any fact at all 
analogous to immortality among the things that 
we indubitably know, must be excused if we smile 
at that doctrine. As far as we see, forms of 
beauty, of sentiment, and of intelligence are the 
most evanescent of phenomena. 

" The flower that once has bloomed forever dies." 

Besides, scientific studies have taught us that 
human testimony, when not hedged about with 
elaborate checks, is a weak kind of evidence. 
In short, the utter unlikeness of an immortal soul 
to anything we cannot doubt, and the slightness 
of all the old arguments of its existence, appear 
to me to have tremendous weight. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 73 

On the other hand, the theory of another life 
is very likely to be strengthened, along with spir- 
itualistic views generally, when the palpable fal- 
sity of that mechanical philosophy of the universe 
which dominates the modern world shall be rec- 
ognized. It is sufficient to go out into the air 
and open one's eyes to see that the world is not 
governed altogether by mechanism, as Spencer, 
in accord with greater minds, would have us be- 
lieve. The endless variety in the world has not 
been created by law. It is not of the nature of 
uniformity to originate variation, nor of law to 
beget circumstance. When we gaze upon the 
multifariousness of nature, we are looking 
straight into the face of a living spontaneity. 
A day's ramble in the country ought to bring 
that home to us. 

Then there is the great fact of growth, of evo- 
lution. I know that Herbert Spencer endeavors 
to show that evolution is a consequence of the 
mechanical principle of the conservation of en- 
ergy. But his chapter on the subject is mathe- 
matically absurd, and convicts him of being a 
man who will talk pretentiously of what he 
knows nothing about. The principle of the con- 
servation of energy may, as is well known, be 



74 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

stated in this form : whatever changes can be 
brought about by forces can equally happen in 
the reverse order (all the movements taking place 
with the same velocities, but in the reverse di- 
rections), under the government of the same 
forces. Now, the essential of growth is that it 
takes place in one determinate direction, which 
is not reversed. Boys grow into men, but not 
men into boys. It is thus an immediate corol- 
lary from the doctrine of the conservation of 
energy that growth is not the effect of force 
alone. 

The world, then, is evidently not governed by 
blind law. Its leading characteristics are abso- 
lutely irreconcilable with that view. When scien- 
tific men first began to understand dynamics, and 
had applied it with great success to the explana- 
tion of some phenomena, they jumped to the 
anticipation that the universe could be explained 
in that way ; and thus what was called the Me- 
chanical Philosophy was set up. But a further 
study of the nature of force has shown that it 
has this conservative character, which absolutely 
refutes that mechanical notion of the universe. 
As well as I can read the signs of the times, 
the doom of necessitarian metaphysics is sealed. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 75 

The world has done with it. It must now give 
place to more spiritualistic views, and it is very 
natural now to anticipate that a further study of 
nature may establish the reality of a future life. 
For my part, I cannot admit the proposition 
of Kant, — that there are certain impassable 
bounds to human knowledge ; and, even if there 
are such bounds in regard to the infinite and 
absolute, the question of a future life, as distinct 
from the question of immortality, does not tran- 
scend them. The history of science affords il- 
lustrations enough of the folly of saying that 
this, that, or the other can never be found out. 
Auguste Comte said that it was clearly impossi- 
ble for man ever to learn anything of the chemi- 
cal constitution of the fixed stars, but before his 
book had reached its readers the discovery which 
he announced as impossible had been made. 
Legendre said of a certain proposition in the 
theory of numbers that, while it appeared to be 
true, it was most likely beyond the powers of 
the human mind to prove it ; yet the next writer 
on the subject gave six independent demonstra- 
tions of the theorem. I really cannot see why 
the dwellers upon earth should not, in some 
future day, find out for certain whether there is 



76 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

a future life or not. But at present I apprehend 
that there are not facts enough in our possession 
to warrant our building any practical conclusion 
upon them. If any one likes to believe in a 
future life, either out of affection for the venera- 
ble creed of Christendom or for his private con- 
solation, he does well. But I do not think it 
would be wise to draw from that religious or 
sentimental proposition any practical deduction 
whatever, — as, for instance, that human happi- 
ness and human rights are of little account, that 
all our thoughts ought to be turned away from 
the things of this world, etc., — unless such de- 
duction has the independent sanction of good 
sense. 



XXI. 

DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL.D., 

President of Johns Hopkins University. 

[President Gilman refers us to the concluding portion of 
his annual report for 1886.] 

The progress of science does not touch, or 
touches only to fortify, the citadel of man's spirit- 
ual nature. On themes like these, one should 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 77 

speak with the reserve which belongs to all that 
is most sacred ; yet I do not hesitate to express 
the conviction that man's consciousness of his 
own personality, with its freedom and its respon- 
sibility, his belief in a Father Almighty, his hopes 
of a life to come, his recognition of a moral law 
and of the authority of an inward monitor, will 
stand firm, whatever discoveries may be made of 
the evolution of life, the relation of soul and 
body, the nature of atoms and of force, and the 
conceptions of space and time. Science shows 
us that all knowledge proceeds from faith, — the 
assumption of premises in which the investigator 
believes. Indeed, if I may use the words of an- 
other, " some of these very discoveries, on closer 
and larger view, seem destined to be the chief 
support of those cherished convictions to which 
they at first seemed hostile. " I anticipate that 
the day is not distant when apprehensions now 
felt will be felt no more, and when science will 
be openly proclaimed the handmaid of religion 
and the ally of good government. 



78 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

XXII. 

PROF. T. H. HUXLEY. 

With respect to immortality. As physical sci- 
ence states this problem, it seems to stand thus : 
Is there any means of knowing whether the series 
of states of consciousness, which has been cau- 
sally associated for threescore years and ten with 
the arrangement and movement of innumerable 
millions of successively different material mole- 
cules, can be continued, in like association, with 
some substance which has not the properties of 
" matter and force " ? As Kant said, on a like 
occasion, if anybody can answer that question, he 
is just the man I want to see. If he says that 
consciousness cannot exist except in relation 
of cause and effect with certain organic mole- 
cules, I must ask how he knows that ; and, if he 
says it can, I must put the same question. And 
I am afraid that, like jesting Pilate, I shall not 
think it worthwhile (having but little time before 
me) to wait for an answer. — Fortnightly Review, 
December \ 1886. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 79 



XXIII. 

GENERAL A. W. GREELY, U.S.A., 
Chief of the Signal Service. 

The belief in personal immortality rests so gen- 
erally on instinctive hope or faith, associated with 
belief in a personal God, that I doubt if all the 
magnificent results of scientific research have in 
this day directly affected this belief, either for or 
against, in one man out of ten thousand. 

In my opinion, however, the result of modern 
science is rather to confirm than to weaken such 
a doctrine. Further, the astounding advances in 
knowledge continuing must eventually result in 
the acutest minds formulating nature's most ab- 
struse laws. This, — to me, at least, — on the 
basis that natural laws apply equally to spiritual 
as to physical matters, gives grounds of hope, 
faint though they are, that some day the proving 
of immortality may be as possible and satisfac- 
tory as is now the demonstration of certain physi- 
ical theories which are generally admitted to be 
truths. 

If scientific truths have weakened in some this 



80 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

hope of personal immortality, yet in others such 
revelations as the immensity of the universe, the 
indestructibility of matter, and the conservation 
of energy have strengthened it. 

We have lately learned the chemical constitu- 
ents of planets so far from us that, by the stand- 
ard of the ancients, their distances are infinite. 
When man has read the whole history of matter 
in the universe, must we not indirectly know 
more of the living energy which has been behind 
this chemical energy through the ages ? 



XXIV. 

PROF. JOSEPH LE CONTE, LL.D., 

University of California. 

There are two widely distinct views concerning 
the relation of man to nature, the one as old as 
the history of human thought, the other only now 
urged upon us by modern science. According 
to the one, man is the counterpart and equiva- 
lent of nature. He alone has — in fact is — an 
immortal spirit, and therefore belongs to a world 
of his own. According to the other, man is but 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 8 1 

a part, a very insignificant part, of nature, and 
connected in the closest way with other parts, 
especially with the animal kingdom. He has no 
world of his own, nor even kingdom of his own : 
he belongs to the animal kingdom. He has no 
department of his own, — he is a vertebrate ; nor 
class of his own, — he is a mammal ; nor order of 
his own, — he is a primate, and shares his primacy 
with apes. It is doubtful if he may enjoy the 
privacy of a family of his own, the hominidae. 
The structural differences between man and the 
anthropoid apes are probably not so great as be- 
tween the sheep family and the deer family. 

Now, of these two views, the latter has been 
in recent times enormously productive in increas- 
ing our knowledge. Anatomy has become truly 
scientific only through comparative anatomy, 
physiology through comparative physiology, em- 
bryology through comparative embryology. Is 
not the same true also of psychology ? Will not 
psychology become truly scientific only through 
comparative psychology, — i.e., by the study of 
the spirit of man in its relation to what corre- 
sponds to it in lower animals ? But this view, 
when pushed to what seems to many its logical 
conclusion, ends in identification of man with 



82 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

mere animals, of spirit with mere physical and 
chemical forces, immortality with mere conserva- 
tion of force, and thus leads to blank and uni- 
versal materialism. Is there any escape ? There 
is. The two extreme views given above are not 
irreconcilable. They are only views from differ- 
ent points physical and structural, and therefore 
equally one-sided and partial; and true philos- 
ophy in this as in all other vexed questions is 
founded only in a view which combines and rec- 
onciles mutually excluding extremes. Can we 
find such a view ? I think we can. 

Let us, however, first trace some of the stages 
of this scientific materialism. I pass over, with 
bare mention, the physiological argument, which 
to many seems to identify thought with brain- 
changes and psychology with brain-physiology, 
and take up at once the argument from evolution, 
which concerns us more nearly, and is also more 
easily understood. 

Man, we say, is endowed with, is, in fact, an 
immortal spirit. What is spirit? We know 
things only by their phenomena. What are the 
phenomena of spirit ? Consciousness, will, in- 
telligence, memory, love, hate, fear. Surely, these 
are some of them. Now, has not a dog or a mon- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 8$ 

key all these ? If man is immortal, are not these 
also? Pressed by this difficulty, some have 
indeed accorded immortal spirit to higher ani- 
mals. But we cannot stop here. If to these, 
then to all animals; for we have here only a 
sliding scale without break. Can we stop now ? 
No ; for the lower animals and plants approach 
each so nearly that no one can draw the line 
between them. We must extend it then to plants 
also. Shall we stop here, and make immortal 
spirit co-extensive with life ? We cannot, for 
life-force is certainly transmutable into and de- 
rivable from physical and chemical forces. 
Therefore, everything is immortal, or none. Our 
boasted immortality resolves itself into indestruc- 
tibility of matter and force, but not of form nor 
of consciousness and personality. Such an im- 
mortality is of no value to us. 

Or, again, each one of us individually was 
formed gradually, by a process of evolution, from 
a microscopic spherule of living protoplasm 
undistinguishable from the lowest forms of life. 
Now, in this gradual process of evolution, when 
did spirit come in ? Was it in the germ cell ? 
Then why deny it to the protozoan ? Was it at 
the quickening or at birth or at the time of first 



84 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

self-consciousness or at some later time of com- 
plete responsibility ? 

. Again, when it did come in, was it something 
superadded ? or did it grow out of something 
already existing ? 

Or, still again, the evolution series from pro- 
tozoan to man is similar in outline to the embry- 
onic series just mentioned. Now, in the gradual 
evolution of the animal kingdom terminating in 
man, where did immortal spirit come in ? Did 
it enter with life or with sensation ? or some- 
where in the ascending animal scale ? or with 
the advent of man? If with man, was it a new 
thing added, or did it grow out of something al- 
ready existing in animals ? 

I believe that this last is the only tenable 
view, — the only view that can effect that recon- 
ciliation which is the only test of a true philoso- 
phy. I believe that the spirit of man was devel- 
oped out of the aiiima, or conscious principle, of 
animals, and this again out of the lower forms 
of life-force, and this in its turn out of physical 
and chemical forces ; and that at a certain stage 
in this development it acquired the property of 
immortality, precisely as in a still higher stage it 
now acquires the power of abstract thought. But, 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 85 

understand me, this is my own view only. It 
appeals, therefore, not to authority, but only to 
reason. I wish now to present it as briefly as 
possible. 

First, then, I draw attention to the fact that 
there is nothing wholly unique in this transforma- 
tion. In the history of the evolution of the cos- 
mos, the forces of nature have all appeared 
successively, as conditions became favorable. 
There was a time in the history of the earth 
when only physical forces existed, chemical 
affinity being held in abeyance by intensity of 
heat. By gradual loss of heat, the conditions 
became favorable; and chemical affinity came 
into being, — a new form of force, though doubt- 
less derived from the preceding. Ages upon ages 
passed away, until the time was ripe and condi- 
tions were favorable, and life appeared, — a new 
and higher form of force, producing a peculiar 
group of phenomena, but still, I suppose, derived 
from the preceding. Again, ages upon ages 
passed away, during which this life-force took 
higher and higher forms, foreshadowing and sim- 
ulating even reason itself, until finally, when 
time was fully ripe, spirit, self-conscious, self- 
determining, rational, and moral, appeared, — a 



86 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

new and still higher form of force, but also still, 
I believe, derived from the preceding. 

But some will ask, " How is this consistent 
with immortality ? " In answer, I beg you to 
remember the relation of God to nature already 
explained. Remember that the forces of nature 
are naught else than different forms of the one, 
omnipresent, divine energy. This divine energy, 
in a generalized condition, unindividuated, dif- 
fused, pervading all nature, is what we call phys- 
ical and chemical force. The same energy in 
higher form, individuating matter, and itself indi- 
viduated, but only yet imperfectly, constitutes 
what we call the life-force of plants. The same 
energy more fully individuating, and itself more 
fully individuated, we call the anima of animals. 
This anima, or animal soul, individuates more 
and more, until it resembles and foreshadows 
the spirit of man. Finally, still the same energy, 
completely individuated as a separate entity, and 
therefore self-conscious, capable of separate ex- 
istence and therefore immortal, we call the spirit 
of man. 

According to this view, the vital principle of 
plants and the anima of animals are but different 
stages of the development of spirit in embryo in 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 87 

the womb of nature. In man, it came to birth. 
Before man, it was in deep embryo sleep, uncon- 
scious of self, unviable, incapable of independent 
life, with physical, umbilical connection with nat- 
ure; but now at last in man separated from nat- 
ure, capable of independent life, born into a new 
and higher plane of existence. 

Although birth is its true correspondence and 
best illustration, we may vary the illustration in 
many ways. In animal, spirit is deep submerged 
in nature, as beneath a water surface, uncon- 
scious of any higher, freer world above. In man, 
spirit emerges above the surface, into a higher 
world, looks down on nature beneath him, around 
on other emerged spirits about him, and up to 
the Father of all spirits above him. 

Or, again, as a planet must separate from phys- 
ical, cohesive connection with the central sun 
(planet birth), in order to enter into higher gravi- 
tative relations, which thenceforward determine 
all its movements in beautiful harmony; as the 
embryo must break away from physical connec- 
tion with the mother, in order to enter into higher 
spiritual bonds of love, — even so spirit must 
break away from physical and material connec- 
tion with the forces of nature, which are the gen- 



88 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

eralized forms of divine energy, in order thereby 
to enter into higher relations of filial love with 
God and brotherly love with man. Finally, as 
the new-born child differs little in grade of phys- 
ical organization from the mature embryo, but at 
birth there is a sudden and complete change in 
the whole plane of life, a change absolutely nec- 
essary for farther advance, even so, at the mo- 
ment of the origin of man, however this may have 
been accomplished, there may have been no great 
change in the grade of psychical organization, and 
yet a complete change in the whole plane of psy- 
chical life, — a change absolutely necessary for 
farther advance. According to this view, man 
alone is a child of God, capable of separate 
spirit, — separate, but not wholly independent. 
Nature is no longer gestative mother, but still 
nursing mother of spirit. We are weaned only 
by death. 

The more we reflect on this, the more we shall 
see that completed spirit-individuality explains, 
as nothing else does, all that is characteristic of 
man. It is this which constitutes what we call 
personality. This also constitutes self-conscious- 
ness and free will and moral responsibility, and 
out of these again grow the capacity of voluntary 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 89 

progress. This also means separate life, spirit 
viability or immortality. Self-consciousness es- 
pecially seems to me the sign of the very act of 
spirit-birth. We may imagine man to have 
emerged ever so gradually from animals. In 
this gradual development, the moment he be- 
comes conscious of self, the moment he turns 
his thoughts inward in wonder upon the mystery 
of his own existence as separate from nature, 
that moment marks the birth of humanity out of 
animality : moral responsibility, immortality, ca- 
pacity for indefinite progress are all involved in 
this event. I am quite sure that if any animal, say 
a dog or a monkey, could be brought to the point 
of self-consciousness (which, however, is impos- 
sible), that moment it or he would become a 
moral, responsible being, and all that is char- 
acteristic of man, immortality, and capacity of 
indefinite progress and all, would necessarily 
follow. 

Thus, then, nature, through the whole geolog- 
ical history of the earth, was the gestative mother 
of spirit, which after its long embryonic develop- 
ment came to birth and to independent life and 
immortality in man. Is there any conceivable 
meaning in nature without this consummation? 



90 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

All evolution has its beginning, its course, its 
end. Without spirit-immortality, this beautiful- 
cosmos, when evolution has run its course and 
all is over, would be as if it never were, — an idle 
dream and idiot tale, signifying nothing. In 
one word, without immortal spirit the cosmos has 
no meaning. Now mark : without this gestative 
method of creation of spirit, the whole history of 
the earth before man would still have no meaning. 
He alone, therefore, is possessed of two nat- 
ures, — a lower and a higher. The whole mis- 
sion of man is the progressive and, finally, the 
complete dominance of the higher over the lower : 
the whole meaning of sin is the humiliating bond- 
age of the higher to the lower. As the material 
evolution of nature found its goal and completion 
and significance in man, so must man enter im- 
mediately on a new and higher evolution to find 
its goal and completion in the ideal man, the 
divine man. As spirit, unconscious in the womb 
of nature, continued to develop by necessary law 
until it came to birth in man, so the new-born 
spirit of man, both in the individual and in the 
race, must ever strive by freer law to grow into a 
higher life and into a newer birth. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 9 1 



XXV. 

PROF. EDWARD C. PICKERING. 

Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Mass. 

Your note regarding the relation of science 
to the question of immortality is at hand. In 
reply, astronomy appears to throw no light on 
this problem, one way or the other. Since it 
deals entirely with the material universe, it does 
not seem probable that such questions would ever 
be included in its pale. The same may be said 
of nearly all other branches of physical science. 
The study of nerve action by the aid of physi- 
ology, and the examination of so-called spiritual 
phenomena by the aid of physics, are exceptions 
to this rule. On the other hand, the question of 
immortality is clearly within the pale of the men- 
tal sciences, and the application to them of the 
rigorous and precise methods of physical science 
is most important. The results so far obtained 
by this method are negative ; and the belief of a 
scientific man, like that of any one else, must be 
based entirely on faith. 



92 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 



XXVI. 

IRA REMSEN, 

Professor of Chemistry in the Johns Hopkins 

University and Editor of American 

Chemical Journal. 

I find it extremely difficult to answer the ques- 
tions propounded by you, the chief difficulty aris- 
ing from the fact that " personal consciousness " 
is an expression which cannot be denned. We 
do not know what it is. It is undoubtedly in 
some wonderful way connected with the workings 
of the brain. Whether it is something which is 
capable of existence independently of the exist- 
ence of the brain is, it appears to me, the first 
point to be decided. I do not know of " any facts 
in the possession of modern science " which en- 
able us to answer this question. If it could be 
shown that " personal consciousness " is necessa- 
rily connected with the workings of the brain, a 
strong argument would thus be furnished against 
its immortalitye It seems to me possible that re- 
searches in the realm of psycho-physics, includ- 
ing observations on those whose brains do not 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 93 

work normally, may eventually throw some light 
upon the subject of "personal consciousness." 
You will see, therefore, that I do not " consider 
the question out of the pale of science altogether." 

As regards the question whether there is " any- 
thing in such discoveries to support or strengthen 
a belief in immortality," I can only say that the 
whole tendency of modern science is to show 
that immortality, not necessarily of "personal 
consciousness," but immortality in a broad sense, 
appears to be a necessary consequence of the 
workings of the laws of nature. 

Investigations in every subject are leading us 
to a clearer recognition of the truth ; and I have 
strong faith that the more clearly we recognize it, 
the better we shall be. Our views on many 
subjects are undergoing change, — in most cases, 
I am convinced, for the better. Should our 
views regarding the immortality of "personal 
consciousness " undergo a radical change, higher 
views of man's relation to the universe would 
take their place, and still stronger reasons for liv- 
ing honest, righteous lives would be recognized. 
I make these last statements to indicate my ideas 
in regard to the tendency of modern science in 
its bearing upon the subject you have brought 
under discussion. 



94 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

XXVII 
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL. 

I understand that the object of your inquiry 
is to ascertain the bearing of scientific dis- 
coveries upon the question of immortality, and 
that you simply solicit my personal opinion upon 
the subject. 

i. To my mind, the " Evolutionary Hypothesis " 
tends to weaken belief in the " immortality of 
personal consciousness " by revealing a cause 
for the growth of such an idea quite indepen- 
dently of its truth. 

In the " struggle for existence," a fear of 
death would often operate to preserve life. 
Especially to early man would such a fear have 
been advantageous ; for, in many cases, he was 
weaker than the formidable animals with which 
he had to cope, and inferior to them in ability to 
find safety in flight, so that he must constantly 
have escaped death only by the exercise of in- 
genuity. The inventive faculty would thus be 
stimulated by the fear of death, and those per- 
sons would survive who were intelligent enough 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 95 

to adopt the weapons and devices that were best 
fitted to preserve their lives and destroy their 
enemies. As destructive power increased through 
invention and the survival of the intelligent, the 
mental faculties would be still further stimulated 
by the conflict of man with man. 

Thus, in man, the fear of death, being advan- 
tageous, would be preserved and intensified by 
natural selection, and be correlated with his 
mental growth. 

The idea of immortality would find in man a 
mental soil in which to take root and grow, for 
the desire for immortality would be strong in those 
who feared to die. The idea, once formulated, 
would be bound to the heart by the feelings en- 
gendered by the social state. Who would not 
cherish the thought that the dear ones who have 
left us still live, and think of us and love us as 
of old? And who would not cling to the hope 
that the affliction and misery and wrong that 
we see around us may be somehow righted in 
another life ? 

As a matter of fact, an instinctive fear of death 
has been handed down to us from the past ; and 
mankind approaches the subject of your inquiry 
with an inherited bias in favor of immortality. 



g6 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

The emotions are so strongly enlisted as to 
oppose an obstacle to investigation ; and the 
heart whispers to the brain, " Where ignorance is 
bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." An instinctive desire 
is felt to avoid issue with a blessed and consola- 
tory belief, by considering the whole subject of 
immortality as outside the pale of heartless 
" science," which seeks truth, and truth alone, 
quite apart from any consequences that may 
arise. 

" Personal consciousness " — or the perception 
of the " ego " — is one of the highest manifes- 
tations of thought. 

The possibility of thought without a brain 
whereby to think is opposed to experience, but 
the persistence of "personal consciousness " after 
the death of the body involves this assumption. 

Our asylums for idiots and insane are full of 
arguments favoring the hypothesis of a causal 
connection between the condition of the brain 
and the mind. 

"Mens sana in corpore sano" was the experi- 
ence of the past ; and the verdict of modern sci- 
ence, I think, only adds confirmation. So de- 
pendent is " personal consciousness " upon bodily 
conditions that its loss may be caused by simple 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 97 

pressure on the substance of the brain. Even 
under normal circumstances, we nightly lose con- 
sciousness in sleep. Syncope may result from a 
disturbance of the circulation of the blood, and 
unconsciousness can be produced at will by the 
employment of anaesthetics. 

2. Such facts as these show that the individ- 
ual may exist without self-consciousness ; and if 
what we call " the soul " is a separate and dis- 
tinct entity, — distinct from the body, — I can see 
nothing in science to negative the assumption of 
its immortality, while at the same time I can find 
nothing to support the hypothesis of personal 
consciousness without a body. 

The perception of the " ego " does not neces- 
sarily prove the existence of a soul as a distinct 
entity, any more than our other perceptions prove 
that light, heat, and sound are entities. Indeed, 
we know that these are not ; and the self-same 
movement of the luminiferous medium may be 
perceived by one sense as light, and another as 
heat, — a dual perception from a single cause. 

While, then, it is true (so far as I know) that 
science cannot assert that there is such a thing 
as a soul at all, it is equally true that it cannot 
postulate its non-existence. 



98 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

Some of the highest generalizations of science, 
the " indestructibility of matter " and the " con- 
servation of energy," point to the immortality of 
the elements of which we are composed. If the 
" ego" is a distinct existence, — elemental in char- 
acter, — every analogy would indicate its immor- 
tality. 

This is the most, I think, that science can say 
in favor of immortality ; but, if it favors the 
hypothesis at all, it does so backwards as well as 
forwards. 

We have no personal consciousness of any pre- 
natal existence ; but, if an elemental (though un- 
conscious) " ego " existed before birth, then we 
have proof from experience (in the fact of our 
present existence) that such a soul, under suit- 
able conditions of environment, may acquire a 
body and the power of self-consciousness. 

Embryology favors the belief that the wonder- 
fully complex organism which we inhabit has 
arisen as a new creation out of an almost struct- 
ureless mass of protoplasm, and it discredits the 
old idea that the perfect man was to be found 
in miniature in the embryo. The theory of epi- 
genesis teaches that " the organs of the embryo 
arise by new formatio?i, and not by mere enlarge- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 99 

ment out of a pre-existing invisible condition." 
In the egg of a bird, we can find, at first, no trace 
of bone or muscle or down ; and yet the presence 
of a vitalized germ determines, in that egg, the 
formation of the living bird. 

3. I do not think that any subject of fact can 
be considered as beyond the pale of science, 
although there are many subjects which cannot 
be directly investigated on account of lack of 
data from which to make deductions. 

The question of what exists beyond death is 
like asking what there is on the other side of the 
moon. We can never know for certain till we go 
there ! We may feel sure that something exists 
on the other side ; and, while it may be impos- 
sible for us ever to obtain even a glimpse of the 
reality, we may hope to arrive at conclusions 
more or less probable by study of the side sub- 
mitted to our view. 



100 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

XXVIII. 

F. A. P. BARNARD, S.T.D., LL.D., 

President of Columbia College, New York. 

After mature reflection, it seems to me that 
science has nothing whatever to say to the ques- 
tion. The only basis of our faith in immortality 
must be found in Revelation. 



NOTES ON THE TESTIMONY. 

BY SAMUEL J. BARROWS, 
Editor of the "Christian Register." 

The notable expression of scientific opinion 
contained in the preceding pages furnishes fruit- 
ful themes for discussion to all who are inter- 
ested in the great problems of human destiny. 

From time to time, science has encroached 
upon the domain of religious tradition. It has 
not so much affected the substance of religious 
beliefs as it has compelled a change in the forms 
in which they have been held. One perishable 
dogma of the Church after another has gone to 
pieces under its hammer or been dissolved in its 
crucible. The doctrine of the literal resurrection 
of the body, though long held on the supposed 
authority of an infallible revelation, was inevi- 
tably doomed by the discoveries of science. The 
literal six-day interpretation of the cosmogony of 
Genesis can no longer be maintained against the 



102 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

older record of creation which science reveals. 
The theory which represented the earth as the 
centre of the universe and all other bodies but 
satellites has given place to truer cosmic concep- 
tions. The Church has tried in vain to arrest 
the disintegration of its dogmas, but the process 
has surely gone on ; and now it is gradually com- 
pelled to adjust itself to larger conceptions of 
truth, which, instead of impoverishing, eventually 
enrich it. Once, the Church was the only oracle : 
now, Science has also an oracle of its own, at 
which the Church on many subjects must in- 
quire, if it wishes to test its conclusions by the 
authority of Truth. 

On the subject of immortality, science and re- 
ligion both claim a voice. In writing the history 
of humanity, science needs to take into account 
the religious development of the race, and relig- 
ion equally needs to seek the truth which comes 
through science, whenever it sheds light upon the 
history or destiny of humanity. The question 
which religion puts to science is, What have you 
to say on the great theme of immortality ? Must 
the belief in the immortality of the soul share the 
fate of the belief in the literal resurrection of the 
body ? 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 103 

In the preceding articles, we cannot claim to 
have a formal or authoritative decree of Science, 
any more than we can claim to have an author- 
itative decree from Religion on the same theme. 
We have, however, a consensus of scientific opin- 
ion presented by twenty-six of the most promi- 
nent scientific men of this country and of 
England. The articles there given present the 
conditions under which, according to scientific 
opinion, a belief in immortality may be held, the 
difficulties which assail it, the indications which 
support it. 

What shall we say of the evidence ? 

1. It must be noticed that doctors in science, 
like doctors in theology, do not agree. It is not 
likely that this jury by any enforced restraint or 
painful abstinence could be brought to a unani- 
mous verdict. There is, therefore, no decision 
to be accepted or set aside, but simply a disa- 
greement to be analyzed. If we could multiply 
these witnesses by a hundred or a thousand, the 
evidence before us would undoubtedly exhibit the 
same variety of opinion. The question cannot 
be settled by a majority vote either of scientists 
or of churchmen. 

2. If unanimity can be found anywhere in 



104 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

these articles, it is most nearly attained in the 
general concession that Science cannot show that 
immortality is impossible. This is, of course, 
only negative proof ; but it shows that science is 
as helpless to refute the doctrine as religion is to 
demonstrate it. It has been sometimes assumed 
in modern discussions that science has facts or 
tests in its possession which render a belief in 
immortality rationally impossible. The testi- 
mony of this jury of scientists shows that that 
is not the case. 

Mr. John Fiske said, not long ago, that philo- 
sophically the relation of science to immortality 
stands to-day just about where it stood in the 
time of Descartes ; that is, there is no more posi- 
tive proof against the doctrine now than there 
was then. Prof. Asaph Hall, in his article, also 
says, "The metaphysical arguments and analo- 
gies of Spinoza, Butler, and Kant may be re- 
peated to-day with as much force as ever; and 
the answers and discussions must be essentially 
the same." Prof. Newcomb does not think that 
" modern investigation has brought to light any 
new facts which really bear upon the question." 
Prof. Lesley says, " Science cannot possibly either 
teach or deny immortality." Dr. Dana says, " I 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 105 

have the fullest confidence that there is nothing 
in science or in any possible results from investi- 
gations of Nature against immortality. ,, Prof. 
Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and Prof. Morse are 
agnostics on the subject. 

3. It is to be noted that the evidence against 
immortality presented in these articles is con- 
tested by some who take the agnostic position. 
Thus, Prof. Ward thinks " the conclusion almost 
a necessary one that brain is the cause of con- 
sciousness, and that consciousness depends upon 
and varies with the nature and condition of the 
brain," and that " destruction of brain results in 
destruction of consciousness. ,, Prof. Leidy like- 
wise says, "Personal consciousness is observed 
as a condition of each and every living animal, 
ranging from microscopic forms to man. The 
condition is observed to cease with death ; and I 
know of no facts of modern science which make 
it otherwise than difficult to believe in the per- 
sistence of that condition, — that is, * the immor- 
tality of the personal existence/ " " Prof. Hux- 
ley, on the other hand, challenges this very 
assumption : " If [one] says that consciousness 
cannot exist except in relation of cause and effect 
with certain organic molecules, I must ask how 



106 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

he knows that ; and, if he says it can, I must put 
the same question." The difficulty, however, of 
believing in the persistence of consciousness after 
death is one which is evidently felt by most of 
the writers whose opinions we have sought, and, 
in addition to Profs. Ward and Leidy, Profs. 
Young, Newcomb, and Morse give expression 
to it. The phenomena of consciousness secure 
a fuller discussion in the papers of Profs. Cope 
and Le Conte. 

4. While there are those in this group of sci- 
entists who do not find that the discoveries of 
science have in any way undermined their per- 
sonal belief in immortality, there are others who 
find evidence in science which makes their belief 
even stronger. 

It is to be noted here, however, that those who 
agree in believing in immortality do not wholly 
agree as to why they believe in it. Prof. Asaph 
Hall is able to say, "I think the discoveries of 
modern science strengthen the belief in immor- 
tality." Prof. Gray thinks that " immortality of 
the personal consciousness is a probable, but not 
unavoidable, inference from theism." 

Dr. Gould points to " the immanence of Deity 
in all physical phenomena as well as the perma- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 1 07 

nence of the individual through and beyond all 
physical changes which may affect him," and 
adds, " That a profound and unbiassed study of 
any branch of natural science should lead to 
disbelief in immortality seems to me prepos- 
terous." 

Dr. Hill finds the solution to be that "man 
is in communication with the Creator of the uni- 
verse " j that " the progress of modern science 
is an ever-accumulating demonstration that the 
source of all being is in a Person"; and that 
God " would not thus hold converse with beings 
whom he had doomed to perish." 

Prof. Young, of Princeton, ieans strongly to 
the opinion that the question is out of the pale 
of science altogether. He cannot accept the 
materialistic hypothesis as scientifically satisfac- 
tory, and is forced to consider it as much more 
probable that a man is more than his body, and 
likely to survive it. In his judgment, "the 
knowledge of 'life and immortality ' comes only 
by revelation." This is substantially the position 
of Prof. Josiah P. Cooke and Sir William Daw- 
son. Prof. T. Sterry Hunt believes " in a con- 
ditional immortality in an eternal life begun 
already in this world, which is not man's birth- 



108 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

right, but the gift of God." Prof. Pickering 
holds that the question is clearly within the pale 
of the mental sciences, but that the results so 
far are negative, and "the belief of a scientific 
man, like that of any one else, must be based 
entirely on faith." 

On the other hand, Prof. A. R. Wallace, the 
eminent English naturalist, confesses that, "out- 
side of modern Spiritualism," he "knows of noth- 
ing in recognized science to support the belief 
in immortality." He holds that these phenom- 
ena may be subjected to scientific tests. In this 
belief, he is supported by Prof. Crookes, the 
English chemist. Dr. Elliott Coues holds that 
"there is much in the discoveries of psychic 
science not only to support or strengthen the 
belief in immortality, but to convert that belief 
into knowledge." 

Gen. Greely, who in the terrors of arctic ex- 
ploration came so near testing personally the 
question at issue, says, " If scientific truths have 
weakened in some this hope of personal immor- 
tality, yet in others such revelations as the im- 
mensity of the universe, the indestructibility of 
matter, and the conservation of energy have 
strengthened it." 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 109 

Prof. Charles S. Peirce does not see " why the 
dwellers upon earth should not in some future 
day find out for certain whether there is a future 
life or not." Gen. Greely also finds ground for 
the hope "that some day the proving of immor- 
tality may be as possible and satisfactory as is 
now the demonstration of certain physical the- 
ories which are generally admitted to be truths." 

President Gilman believes that the hope of 
a life to come, together with man's belief in a 
Father Almighty and the recognition of a moral 
law, "will stand firm, whatever discoveries may 
be made of the evolution of life, the relation of 
soul and body, the nature of atoms and of force, 
and the conceptions of space and time." 

Prof. Lesley, while admitting, as before said, 
that " Science cannot possibly either teach or 
deny immortality," adds, "But every man of 
science must acquiesce in the fact of the general 
conviction, and in its probable ground in some 
persistent part of our nature." 

Dr. Ira Remsen writes, " I am convinced that 
the whole tendency of modern science is to show 
that immortality — not necessarily of 'personal 
consciousness/ but immortality in a broad sense 
— is a necessary consequence of the workings of 
the laws of nature." 



IIO SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

Prof. Joseph Le Conte, in his elaborate study 
of the history of consciousness, believes that 
in man " spirit emerges above the surface into a 
higher world." Before man, he finds spirit inca- 
pable of independent life. It is man alone in 
the whole range of conscious beings that ac- 
quires separate life or immortality. "Without 
immortal spirit," says Prof. Le Conte, "the 
cosmos has no meaning." This argument is 
therefore similar to that of Mr. John Fiske, who 
holds substantially that consciousness may be- 
come persistent at a certain period in its devel- 
opment, as in the life of man. Prof. Morse, on 
the other hand, maintains that immortality of the 
personal consciousness for man would imply im- 
mortality for all life, to the bottom round. 

To the mind of Prof. Alexander Graham Bell, 
the evolutionary hypothesis tends to weaken be- 
lief in the immortality of personal consciousness, 
yet he admits that "if the 'ego' is a distinct 
existence elemental in character, every analogy 
would indicate its immortality." 

Dr. Cope and Prof. Peirce do not hesitate to 
grapple athletically with the logical problems 
involved in the relations of mind to matter. 
They both take strong and well-fortified ground 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY III 

against the mechanical and automatic philosophy. 
"In my opinion," says Prof. Peirce, "the doom 
of the necessitarian metaphysics is sealed. The 
world has done with it. It must now give place 
to more spiritualistic views, and it is very natural 
now to anticipate that a further study of nature 
may establish the reality of a future life.^ Prof. 
Cope, through an elaborate and thorough study 
of the problem of creation, finds that " we thus 
render probable the existence of a supreme mind 
which is immortal. And from that premise we 
may infer that under proper conditions our own 
minds are or may be immortal also." 

In the previous quotations, presenting a variety 
of arguments, opinions, and probabilities, we 
see on what different rational elements the belief 
in immortality may be made to rest, while in 
some cases it is made purely a matter of relig- 
ious faith. It illustrates the strength of the 
hold of immortality upon the human mind and 
heart, that so many holding it justify their belief 
in it on entirely different grounds. It leads one 
to think that immortality is one of those faiths 
of the soul of which it has been said that we 
believe it, not because we can prove it, but we 
prove it because we believe it. 



112 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

In these inquiries, emphasis was laid on the 
point of personal consciousness, because this has 
always been an important element in the concep- 
tion of immortality in the Occidental mind. Un- 
doubtedly, the majority of Christians would think 
immortality hardly worth considering if personal 
consciousness did not go with it. The Oriental 
mind, however, has never laid so much stress 
upon personal consciousness. The Hindu throws 
a lump of salt into the river. " It is gone," he 
says ; " but it is all there." The Oriental mind 
is capable of conceiving without dismay of the 
absorption of the individual soul into the Eternal 
Soul of the universe. Such a destiny it regards 
not as destruction, bat as deification. The satis- 
faction we find in such a view will depend much 
upon the intensity with which the belief in God 
is held. 

Were the perpetuity of mind the only problem 
before us, the answers of scientists would be 
easier and more unanimous. On the physical 
side, science assures us that not an atom is lost. 
Matter changes its form, but does not die. If 
matter is indestructible, is not the soul of matter 
indestructible ? And here Prof. Lester F. Ward 
assures us that " science postulates the immortal- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 113 

ity, not of the human soul alone, but of the soul of 
the least atom of matter." The loss of personal 
consciousness does not thus involve the idea of 
extinction. There is a vast difference between 
dropping into absolute nonentity and continuing, 
through whatever changes of personal identity, 
as a part of the soul-force of the universe. If 
the individual life is to grow into larger capacity 
hereafter, perhaps one of the first essentials may 
be the breaking down of the limits of personality, 
in order to partake in a larger degree of the 
forces of an omnipotent Will, an unlimited In- 
telligence, and an absolute Righteousness. Im- 
mortality may be achieved, therefore, not through 
the insulation of the individual soul, but through 
its expansion into larger relations of life and 
mind. 

5. There are further indications in some of 
the papers that such side-light as science throws 
upon immortality suggests possible change in the 
form of belief in which that doctrine is held. At 
least, the effect of questioning science on this 
theme is to open up another whole series of ques- 
tions as to the conditions of future existence. 
This is seen in the conclusion of Prof. Lesley's 
paper. It is also suggested by Prof. Cope, who 



114 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

says : " As to the nature of this supposed immor- 
tality, science can have little to say. One thing, 
however, may be asserted. We cannot be sure 
of retaining our personality intact, although a 
great change might not be any cause for regret 
As we change our personality in the course of 
time during this life, we cannot be sure of retain- 
ing it in another. But we do not always regret 
the change which time produces here ; in fact, 
we may generally rejoice in it. Then there is a 
question as to the necessary isolation or distinc- 
tion of consciousness from each other, all of 
which may be relegated to the region of specula- 
tion." 

* Humanity has already experienced many 
changes in its belief in immortality during its 
passage from a lower zone of life to a higher. 
But, of the new forms of that belief which still 
remain to us, science may furnish some of the 
most grateful. Instead of chilling our convic- 
tions, it may eventually give to them a greater 
glow. We do not believe that the truths of relig- 
ion are to be verified by what, in the strictest 
sense, may be called scientific data. But the 
wholly new conception of the processes and his- 
tory of the universe and its unity and magnitude, 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 115 

which science reveals, furnishes grand and inspir- 
ing material for the exercise and development of 
the loftiest piety. This confidence that human- 
ity is growing toward larger ideals and better 
hopes is well expressed in the reassuring words 
of Dr. Remsen : " Our views on many subjects 
are undergoing change, — in most cases, I am 
convinced, for the better. Should our views re- 
garding the immortality of ' personal conscious- 
ness ' undergo a radical change, higher views of 
man's relation to the universe would take their 
place, and still stronger reasons for living hon- 
est, righteous lives would be seen." 

The result of our inquiry has thus shown that 
Science has developed no view of the universe 
or of the origin and destiny of man which pre- 
vents Religion from cherishing its grandest hopes, 
its most inspiring faiths. The belief in immor- 
tality may still be rationally justified by the proc- 
esses of logic, may still be warmed by the heart 
and colored by the imagination. " He must be 
an unobservant man," says Rev. O. B. Frothing- 
ham, " who can persuade himself that the belief 
in immortality has lost its hold on live minds, 
and he must be a stubbornly opinionated man 



Il6 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

who has persuaded himself that either philosophy 
or science pronounces finally against it. The 
thinkers who stand up for it — who maintain it 
on grounds of pure reason — are as eminent as 
the thinkers who reject it, and they are far more 
numerous. The men of science who earnestly 
defend it are in every respect the peers of its 
antagonists. At the bar of reason, both sides 
plead. The case is not closed, nor is it likely to 
be. Setting aside the evidences presented by 
6 Spiritualism/ and confessing the insufficiency 
of the arguments commonly adduced by philos- 
ophy and religion, the case is not abandoned 
by the masters of intellect. The children of the 
heart give no sign of a disposition to surrender 
their faith. The conscience still prophesies, the 
soul still aspires. And so it will be until the 
ancient petition shall be answered : * May thy 
kingdom come. May thy will be done on earth, 
as it is in heaven.' " 

Science itself must be enlarged before it can 
include in its discussion all the elements which 
are needed to answer the great question of im- 
mortality. Science engages itself mostly with 
the phenomena of Nature, with the objective 
world. There is a vast region of mind which it 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 117 

has not yet included in its tests. Humanity 
itself is a product of Nature, and cannot be left 
out in any estimate of Nature's testimony. With 
humanity, we must take the whole range of emo- 
tions and of ethical motives that influence it. 
The hopes, the affections, the infinite yearnings 
of the human heart will not be silenced. These 
are a part of our heritage, and these are pro- 
phetic of our destiny. If ethics is something 
more than a few utilitarian precepts, if it is the 
manifestation in the life and heart of man of an 
Eternal Righteousness which throbs in the uni- 
verse, then science can no more ignore ethics 
than it can ignore gravitation. It is to ethics 
and psychology that we must turn when we seek 
the destiny of mind. From this stand-point there 
is great significance in the quotation which Dr. 
James makes from Lotze : " We have no other 
principle for deciding the question than this gen- 
eral idealistic belief : that every created thing 
will continue whose continuance belongs to the 
meaning of the world, and so long as it does so 
belong ; whilst every one will pass away whose 
reality is justified only in a transitory phase of 
the world's course." 

Ethics may lead us to the belief that the good 



Il8 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

of the individual depends upon the final good of 
the whole, and psychology may assure us that 
the mind that wells up in us is a part of the 
Eternal Consciousness of the universe. When 
we come, therefore, to believe that the good of 
the individual is attained through the good of 
the whole, and are willing to live for such a 
great end in this life, then we may be willing to 
live for it in the next. A selfish concern for our 
own individual salvation may yield to a desire to 
contribute to the salvation of the universe, to join 
our little lives with the Eternal Righteousness. 
And, when we feel that it is the Eternal Con- 
sciousness that wells up in us, we may rejoice 
like the rain-drop to fall in the great ocean from 
which our life is derived. 

In any case, we believe that the hope of im- 
mortality is not to be diminished, but to be glori- 
fied. If our lives are hid, they are hid in God. 
It is a faith of the soul that we cannot go where 
the Eternal Love will not hold us in its protec- 
tion and the Eternal Mind illumine us. Our 
immortality is the immortality of God, whose 
children we are and from whose endless life we 
are born. If we lose our lives, it is only that we 
may find them again in God. 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 



Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard, S.T.D., 
LL.D., L.H.D., was born in Sheffield, Mass., in 1809, 
graduated at Yale College in 1828, was tutor in the 
same college in 1830, Professor of Mathematics and 
Natural Philosophy in the University of Alabama 
1837-48, Professor of Chemistry and Natural His- 
tory in the same institution 1848-54, President of the 
University of Mississippi 1856-58, Chancellor of the 
same 1858-61. He took orders in the Protestant 
Episcopal Church in 1854, was connected with the 
United States Coast Survey in 1863-64, was elected 
President of Columbia College, New York, in 1864, 
and still holds the position. He has published a 
large number of works on scientific and educational 
subjects. He was one of the original incorporators 
of the National Academy of Science, and one of the 
United States Commissioners to the Paris Exposition. 

Alexander Graham Bell, was born in Edin- 
burgh, Scotland, March 3, 1847. He is a son of 
Alexander Melville Bell, the eminent elocutionist, 
and author of the System of Visible Speech, He 



120 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

was graduated at the Edinburgh High School and 
Edinburgh University. He came to Canada in 1870, 
and to the United States in 1872. He introduced in 
this country the system of deaf-mute instruction, 
which his father did so much to develop. He was 
Professor of Vocal Physiology in Boston University. 
He is most widely known as the inventor of the tele- 
phone. On May 10, 1876, he gave an exhibition in 
Boston, in the rooms of the American Academy, on 
telegraphing musical sounds. This was the prelude 
to the speaking telephone, which was exhibited at 
Philadelphia in the same year. He is also the in- 
ventor of the photophone. He has been much inter- 
ested in the education of the deaf and dumb, and has 
written an important paper on this infirmity as viewed 
in its relation to heredity. 

Josiah Parsons Cooke, LL.D., was born at Bos- 
ton, 1827, graduated at Harvard in 1848, became Erv- 
ing Professor of Chemistry and Mineralogy of Har- 
vard University in 1851. He has published Chemi- 
cal Physics, Religion and Chemistry, Principles of 
Chemical Philosophy, The New Chemistry, Scientific 
Culture and Other Essays, and made numerous con- 
tributions to scientific journals. 

Edward Drinker Cope, A.M., Ph.D., was born 
in Philadelphia in 1840. He was Professor of Nat- 
ural Science in Haverford College from 1864 to 1867. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 121 

He has been a voluminous contributor to scientific 
literature. A catalogue of his papers would fill sev- 
eral pages of this book, and its readers might find 
many of the titles almost unpronounceable. His 
studies have ranged through zoology and paleontol- 
ogy, and he was paleontologist of the United States 
Geological Survey of the Territories. He has done 
much in the interest of accurate scientific classifica- 
tion. He has treated the hypothesis of evolution in 
various aspects, and has published a collection of 
essays on the subject in a work entitled The Origin 
of the Fittest, His last book, issued within a few 
weeks, considers the " Theology of Evolution.'* Pro- 
fessor Cope, as will be seen from his paper, is not 
only strong in scientific knowledge, but in his philo- 
sophical power of grappling with scientific generaliza- 
tion. 

Elliott Coues, M.D., Ph.D., was born at Ports- 
mouth, Sept. 9, 1842. Dr. Coues is chiefly known 
through his numerous works on ornithology, mam- 
malogy, herpetology, bibliography, comparative anat- 
omy, and natural philosophy. Dr. Coues has held 
the following official positions : Medical Cadet, U.S. 
Army, 1862-63; Acting Assistant Surgeon, U.S. 
Army, 1863-64; Assistant Surgeon, U.S. Army, 1864- 
81, resigned November 17; Professor of Zoology 
and Comparative Anatomy, Norwich University, Vt., 
1869; Surgeon and Naturalist, U.S. Northern Boun- 



122 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

dary Commission, 1873-76; Collaborator, Smith- 
sonian Institution, 1875; Secretary and Naturalist, 
U.S. Geological and Geographical Survey of the 
Territories, 1876-80; Professor of Anatomy, Na- 
tional Medical College (Medical Department of Co- 
lumbian University), Washington, 1877; Professor 
of Biology, Virginia Agricultural and Medical Col- 
lege, 1883; Member of the General Council, and of 
the American Board of Control, Theosophical Society 
of India, 1884. 

Dr. Coues is a member of the National Academy 
of Sciences, of the American Philosophical Society, 
Corresponding Member of the Zoological Society of 
London, and is a member of many other societies. 
He is the founder of the Gnostic Theosophical So- 
ciety of Washington, and a Fellow of the Theosoph- 
ical Society of India. He is the author of several 
hundred monographs and papers in scientific period- 
icals, besides many separate works. 

James Dwight Dana, LL.D., was born 1813, and 
is a graduate of Yale. His System of Mineralogy 
was first published in 1837. He accompanied the 
Government Exploring Expedition of 1838, under 
command of Capt. Wilkes. He has been for years 
one of the editors of the American Journal of Sci- 
ence. In 1850, he was elected Professor of Natural 
History and Geology in Yale College, and entered on 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 1 23 

duty in 1855. He is one of the three American Fel- 
lows of the Royal Society. 

Sir J. William Dawson, C. M. G., LL.D., F.R.S., 
F.G.S., was born in Pictou, N.S., in 1820. He was 
educated at the University of Edinburgh. He was 
appointed Superintendent of Education in Nova Sco- 
tia 1850, and Principal of McGill College, Montreal, 
in 1855, a position which he still holds. He is the 
author of Acadian Geology, The Story of the Earth 
and Man, The Origin of the World, Lifers Dawn on 
Earth, Fossil Men and their Modem Representa- 
tives, and many memoirs, reports, and papers on geo- 
logical subjects. He is a past President of the Amer- 
ican Association for the Advancement of Science, 
and presided at the meeting of the British Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science in Birmingham 
in 1886. 

Daniel Coit Gilman, LL.D., was born at Nor- 
wich, Conn., in 183 1, and graduated at Yale in 1852, 
was Professor of Physical and Political Geography 
at Yale College in 1856-72, Superintendent of Schools 
in Connecticut 1863-65, President of the University 
of California 1872-75, became President of Johns 
Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1875. He has written 
numerous scientific, historical, and educational papers. 

Benjamin Apthorp Gould, LL.D., was born in 
Boston, 1824, graduated at Harvard College in 1844, 



124 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

studied astronomy abroad for four years. Dr. Gould 
established at Cambridge, in 1849, the Astronomical 
Journal. His contributions to astronomical science 
have been numerous and valuable. In 1855, he be- 
came Director of the Dudley Observatory at Albany. 
In 1870, he went to South America, where he estab- 
lished a national observatory at Cordova for the 
Argentine Republic. He published several volumes 
of observations. He is a member of the National 
Academy of Science, of the Royal Astronomical So- 
ciety of London, the Academies of Paris, Berlin, St. 
Petersburg, Vienna, Gottingen, etc., the American 
Philosophical Society, and the American Academy. 

Asa Gray, M.D., LL.D., was born in Paris, Oneida 
County, New York, 1810. He received his medical 
degree in 1831, made a specialty of botany, and be- 
came Professor of Natural History in Harvard Uni- 
versity in 1842. He resigned from this position 
1873. Dr. Gray was President of the American Acad- 
emy, is a member of the National Academy of the 
Linnasan Society of London, and the Imperial Acad- 
emy of Science of St. Petersburg. He is one of the 
three American Fellows of the Royal Society. His 
popular books on botany, How Plants Grow and 
Lessons in Botany, are widely known ; and his Man- 
ual of Botany is as familiar as a dictionary to all stu- 
dents of that science. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 1 25 

Brig.-Gen. Adolphus W. Greely was born in 
Newburyport, Mass., March 27, 1844, and was fitted 
for college in its public schools. On July 3, 1861, he 
was enrolled as a private in Company B of Major Ben : 
Perley Poore's Rifle Battalion, which formed part of 
the Nineteenth Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer 
Infantry. July 26, 1861, he was mustered into the 
United States service. In September, 1861, he was 
appointed Corporal. He served in the engagements of 
Ball's Bluff, reconnoissance at Lee's Mills, siege of 
Yorktown, West Point, Fair Oaks, Heintzelman's 
skirmish, June 25, 1862, Peach Orchard, Savage Sta- 
tion, White Oak Swamp or Glen Dale (wounded), 
Malvern Hill, Chantilly, Antietam (twice wounded 
and in hospital therefrom two months), and was one 
of the " forlorn hope " at the crossing of the Rappa- 
hannock, Dec. 11, 1862, and at Fredericksburg. For 
good behavior at Fredericksburg, he was appointed 
First Sergeant. He rose to be a Captain, and was 
brevetted Major United States Volunteers, March 13, 
1865, "f° r faithful and meritorious services during the 
war." 

He was appointed a Second Lieutenant Thirty-sixth 
Regular Infantry, March 7, 1867, from the State of 
Louisiana, and served with his regiment at Fort San- 
ders, Fort Bridger, and at Salt Lake City, until Au- 
gust, 1868, when he was ordered to duty with the 
chief signal officer of the army. 

His work in the Signal Service Bureau has been of 



126 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

great value. He was complimented by the chief sig- 
nal officer for the great energy and despatch shown 
in the construction of military telegraph lines. He 
has made important contributions to meteorological 
charts. 

In March, 1881, he was assigned by direction of 
the President to the command of the International 
Polar Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, and sailed 
July 7, 1 881. The remarkable history of this expedi- 
tion, its valuable scientific observations, and the won- 
derful escape of Gen. Greely and a few of his com- 
rades aroused the attention of the civilized world. 

Since his return, Gen. Greely has received many 
attentions from learned societies at home and abroad. 
The Royal Swedish and Scottish Geographical Soci- 
eties and the British Science Association have 
elected him to honorary membership, the American 
Geographical Society gave him an enthusiastic recep- 
tion, while the Paris and the Pacific Geographical 
Societies adopted complimentary resolutions on his 
services. The Royal Geographical Society unani" 
mously awarded him the highest honor, the founder's 
gold medal, in 1876. He received the thanks of the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts through the Gen- 
eral Court. 

Gen. Greely was promoted to Captain of the Fifth 
Cavalry June 11, 1886, and Chief Signal Officer, with 
the rank of Brigadier-General, Feb. 6, 1887. He re- 
ceived, April 15, 1887, the Roquette gold medal, the 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 127 

highest honor conferred by the French Geographical 
Society. Gen. Greely has left a lasting memorial of 
his expedition in the scientific account which he has 
prepared of it. 

Asaph Hall, LL.D., was born in Goshen, Conn., 
in 1829. He is Professor of Mathematics, U.S.N., and 
is connected with the National Observatory at Wash- 
ington. He received the degree of LL.D. from Yale 
in 1879, an d from Harvard in 1886. He won a world- 
wide reputation as discoverer of the moons of Mars, 
and received a gold medal from the Royal Astronom- 
ical Society. He has made important contributions 
to the annual WasJwtgton Observations. 

Thomas Hill, D.D., LL.D., was born in New 
Brunswick, N.J., 181 8, graduated at Harvard College, 
studied theology two years, was made President of 
Antioch College in 1869 and of Harvard College in 
1862, resigned in 1868. Dr. Hill is a man of wide 
knowledge and remarkable versatility. He is most 
highly distinguished as a mathematician; but, in ad- 
dition to being a good classical scholar, he has made 
a special study of the philosophy of education and 
of natural theology. He has published a number of 
poems, is a great lover of music, has tried his hand 
at landscape painting, and not long ago painted his 
own portrait for a friend. Think of it, — preacher, 
teacher, poet, mathematician, botanist, artist, philos- 



128 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

opher, author! He is a member of the American 
Academy and of the American Philosophical Society. 

Thomas Sterry Hunt, LL.D., was born at Nor- 
wich, Conn., 1826; studied medicine and chemistry, 
and in 1845 became assistant in chemistry to Prof. 
Silliman ; served for twenty-five years as chemist and 
mineralogist to the geological survey of Canada ; was 
Professor of Chemistry in the Laval University, 
Quebec, and in McGill College, Montreal, and later, 
until his resignation in 1879, °f Geology in the Mas- 
sachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a mem- 
ber of the National Academy of Sciences of the 
United States, of the Royal Society of London, of 
the Leopoldo-Carolinean Academy of Germany, and 
of a great number of other learned societies in Amer- 
ica and Europe, besides being an officer of the 
Legion of Honor of France, and of the order of Sts. 
Mauritius and Lazarus of Italy. He is M.A. of 
Harvard, and LL.D. of Cambridge, England. In his 
two recently published volumes, entitled Mineral 
Physiology and Physiography and A New Basis for 
Chemistry, but especially in the first two chapters of 
the former, will be found embodied his views on the 
philosophy of matter and of life. 

William James, M.D. — Dr. James is the son of 
the late Henry James, of Cambridge, and a brother of 
the well-known novelist. He graduated from Har- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 1 29 

vard in 1869, studied abroad, was Assistant Professor 
of Physiology in Harvard College, and is now Pro- 
fessor of Philosophy in the same institution. He has 
made many contributions to scientific and philosophi- 
cal journals, and is a philosophical writer of rare 
depth and acumen. 

Joseph Le Conte, M.D., LL.D., was born of Hu- 
guenot parentage, Feb. 26, 1823, in Liberty County, 
Georgia. Graduated A.B. at Franklin College, Uni- 
versity of Georgia, in 1841, and A.M. in 1845, an d 
LL.D. in 1879. Graduated M.D. in New York Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons in 1845, B.S. in 
Lawrence Scientific School, 1851, specialty being Ge- 
ology and Natural History. Elected Professor of 
Natural Sciences in Oglethorpe University, Georgia, 
in 1852; same in Franklin College, University of 
Georgia, in 1853 ; of Chemistry and Geology in 
South Carolina College, in 1857; of Geology and 
Natural History in University of California, in 1869, 
where he still remains. 

His principal works are : " Agency of Gulf Stream 
in Formation of Peninsula and Keys of Florida," 
in 1856, American Jotimal of Science. "Corre- 
lation of Vital with Physical and Chemical Forces," 
1859, American Journal of Science. A series of 
articles in Southern Presbyterian Review, on Edu- 
cation, on Philosophy of Art, on Relation of Sociol- 
ogy to Biology, etc., 1858-63. A series of twelve 



130 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

articles on " Phenomena of Binocular Vision," in 
American Journal of Scie?ice and elsewhere, 1868- 
87. A series of articles, "Structure and Origin of 
Mountain Ranges," American Journal of Science, 
1872-78. A series of articles on "Ancient Glaciers 
of Sierra" American Journal, 1873-75. Three arti- 
cles on "Genesis of Metalliferous Veins," American 
Journal, 1882 and 1883. Two on " Glycogenic Func- 
tions of the Liver," American Journal, 1878 and 
1880. Two on the "Old River-beds of California 
as showing Post-tertiary Elevation of the Sierra," 
1874-86. Four articles in Popular Science Monthly : 
{a) " Correlation of Vital with Physical and Chemical 
Forces " ; (b) " Relation of Instinct and Intelli- 
gence"; (c) "Genesis of Sex"; (d) "Relation of 
Biology to Sociology," 1873-80. Five articles in 
Princeton Review, 1878-84: {a) "Man's Place in 
Nature"; (b) "School, College, and the University"; 
(c) "Relation of Evolution and Materialism"; (d) 
"Illustrations of a Law of Evolution of Thought"; 
(e) " Psychical Relation of Man to Animals." Two 
articles in Berkeley Quarterly, " Effect of Mixture 
of Races on Human Progress," " Comte's Classifi- 
cation of the Sciences," many others of less note. 
He is the author of the following books : — 

1. A volume of Sunday lectures entitled Religious 
Science, 

2. Elements of Geology, for colleges. 

3. Compend of Geology, for high schools. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 131 

4. Sight, an exposition of principles of monocular 
and binocular vision. International Scientific Series. 

5. He is about to publish a work on Evolution and 
its Relatio7i to Religious Thought. 

He is a member of all the principal scientific so- 
cieties of this country, member National Academy, 
Fellow American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
Boston, American Philosophical Society, Philadel- 
phia, New York Academy of Sciences, Fellow of 
American Association for Advancement of Science, 
etc. 

Joseph Leidy, M.D., LL.D., was born at Philadel- 
phia 1823, graduated at the University of Pennsyl- 
vania in 1844, devoted himself to biology, comparative 
anatomy, and vertebrate paleontology, was chosen 
Professor of Anatomy in the Medical Department of 
the University of Pennsylvania in 1853, and in 1871 
Professor of Natural History of Swarthmore College. 
He received the degree of LL.D. from Harvard Col- 
lege on its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. He 
has been a frequent contributor to the Smithsonian 
Contributions and the Journal of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences and Transactions of the American 
Philosophical Society, Philadelphia. 

J. Peter Lesley was born in Philadelphia in 1819, 
graduated at the University of Pennsylvania in 1838, 
and at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1844, was 
assistant geologist in the first survey of Pennsyl- 



132 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

vania in 1839-41. He travelled on foot through 
France, and studied in the University of Halle in 
1844. In 1845, ne established the colportage system 
of the American Tract Society in the northern and 
middle counties of Pennsylvania. He was pastor 
of the Orthodox church in Milton, Mass., in 1847, 
and retired from the ministry in 1850. He has held 
various other official positions of a scientific charac- 
ter, — has been Secretary and Librarian of the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society, Professor of Geology and 
Mining Engineering in the University of Pennsyl- 
vania, was one of the corporate members of the 
National Academy, has published a variety of scien- 
tific monographs, and is now State Geologist of 
Pennsylvania. Like Dr. Hill, he is a man of great 
versatility; and we have before us a paper read 
by him before the American Philosophical Society 
on " The Hebrew Word ' Shaddai,' " showing a great 
deal of independent research in the Old Testament. 
Prof. Lesley is a man of wide knowledge in many 
departments. 

Edward S. Morse, Ph.D., was born at Portland, 
Me., in 1838. He manifested at an early age a pro- 
found love of natural history, preferring the woods 
and streams to the academy desk, and finding special 
delight in the study of shells, both land and marine. 
He also prepared himself for close observation and 
careful record by prolonged studies in drawing, spend- 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 133 

ing several years in this pursuit and in practice as a 
professional draughtsman. From 1859 *° x 862, Prof. 
Morse was an assistant of Agassiz at Cambridge, 
attending also the lectures of Wyman, Cooke, and 
Lowell. He was Professor of Comparative Anatomy 
and Zoology in Bowdoin College, Maine, for several 
years. In 1866, he settled at Salem, Mass., where he 
still resides, as Director of the Peabody Academy 
of Science. The chief scientific societies have 
chosen him to their memberships and to conspicuous 
offices in their organizations, and he was elected 
President of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science. In the year 1877, Prof. 
Morse decided to visit Japan, in order to dredge 
along the coast for specimens in his favorite lines 
of research, especially for brachiopods, — an ancient, 
interesting, and wide-spread variety of deep-water 
creatures. The Japanese authorities secured ■ his 
promise to return and accept the Chair of Zoology at 
the Imperial University at Tokio. Accordingly, in 
1878, he removed with his family to Japan, where he 
dwelt for nearly two years, actively engaged at the 
University teaching, establishing a zoological station 
on the Bay of Yeddo, studying the traces of primitive 
man on the Japanese islands, and making voluminous 
notes and sketches of ethnological and general inter- 
est. He subsequently made a third visit to Japan, 
for the sole purpose of collecting and completing his 
illustrations. Prof. Morse has written a fascinating 



134 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

book on Japanese Homes, and an important ethnolog- 
ical monograph on " Methods of Arrow Release," in 
addition to various scientific monographs. He is a 
member of the National Academy of Science and 
Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and 
Sciences. 

Simon Newcomb, LL.D., was born at Wallace, 
N.S., in 1835; came to the United States in child- 
hood. A remarkable talent for mathematics was 
early exhibited. He was employed when twenty-two 
years of age as computer on the National Almanac. 
In 1 86 1, he was appointed Professor of Mathe- 
matics in the United States Navy, and stationed at 
the Naval Observatory. In 1877, ne was detached 
from the observatory and made Superintendent of the 
Nautical Almanac, the office of which is in the Navy 
Department. He was chosen in 1872 a Foreign As- 
sociate of the Royal Astronomical Society of Eng- 
land, which in 1874 awarded to him a gold medal for 
his table of Uranus and Neptune. He has published 
a book on Popular Astronomy, and is also the author 
of a work on Political Economy, and has been a fre- 
quent contributor to the magazines in this depart- 
ment. He is a member of the National Academy of 
Sciences. 

Edward Charles Pickering, S.B., is a descend- 
ant of one of the oldest families in Boston, and 
was graduated at the Lawrence Scientific School in 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 135 

1865. Was Thayer Professor of Physics at the Mas- 
sachusetts Institute of Technology from i86j-jj t 
when he was appointed Phillips Professor of Astron- 
omy, Professor of Geodesy, and Director of the Ob- 
servatory of Harvard College. He has written two 
volumes on Elements of Physical Manipulation, and 
has contributed a large number of papers on astro- 
nomical and mathematical subjects to the Journal of 
the Franklin Institute, the Proceedings of the Amer- 
ican Academy, and the American Journal of Science, 
He has edited several volumes of the Annals of the 
Harvard Observatory, containing photometric obser- 
vations. He has received the gold medal from the 
Royal Astronomical Society of London for valuable 
researches. 

Charles S. Peirce, S.B., is a son of the late Prof. 
Peirce of Harvard College. He was graduated at 
Harvard, was connected with the United States Coast 
and Geodetic Survey, and was a Lecturer on Logic 
in Harvard and the Johns Hopkins Universities. He 
is a member of the United States National Academy 
of Sciences, and has devoted himself to scientific 
logic. He has made some physical determinations, 
and has published a number of memoirs on the ap- 
plication of mathematics to physical problems. 

Ira Remsen, M.D., Ph.D., is a graduate of the Col- 
lege of the City of New York, and received his M.D. 
from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New 



136 SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 

York in 1867. He obtained a Ph.D. from the Uni- 
versity of Gottingen in 1870, was Professor of Chem- 
istry in Williams College from 1872-76, and pre- 
viously assistant in chemistry in the University of 
Tubingen. He is the editor of the American Chem- 
ical Journal, and Professor of Chemistry in Johns 
Hopkins University. He is a member of the Amer- 
ican Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Na- 
tional Academy of Sciences. He is the author of 
four well-known text-books of chemistry, and is a 
constant contributor to the principal journals of 
chemistry. 

Lester F. Ward, A.M., of Washington, is one of 
the geologists of the United States Geological Sur- 
vey, having vegetable paleontology for his branch 
of the service. He is also connected with the Na- 
tional Museum as Honorary Curator of Botany and 
Fossil Plants. He has published as a bulletin of the 
National Museum a Guide to the Flora of Wash- 
ington, and in the Annual Reports of the Geolog- 
ical Survey a " Sketch of Paleobotany" and " Synop- 
sis of the Flora of the Laramie Group," which are 
forerunners of larger works in preparation. His best 
known work is his Dyna7?iic Sociology, in two vol- 
umes, which embodies a complete system of philos- 
ophy from an American stand-point. The scientific 
journal Science pronounced this work " America's 
greatest contribution to scientific philosophy." Mr. 



SCIENCE AND IMMORTALITY 137 

Ward has been a constant contributor for the last 
twelve years to the leading scientific periodicals and 
magazines. 

Charles A. Young, Ph.D., LL.D., born at Han- 
over, N.H., 1834, graduated at Dartmouth College 
1853, studied theology in Andover Seminary 1855-56, 
was Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astronomy 
at Dartmouth, is at present Professor of Astronomy 
in Princeton College. Is a member of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, a member of the Na- 
tional Academy, and a Foreign Associate of the 
Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain. He 
was President of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science in 1883. He has written 
some popular works on Astronomy, and as an orig- 
inal investigator has made important discoveries. 
He has contributed to various scientific journals. 



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